Covid 19 – The Amnesty
- During Covid there was a whole raft of Government Support Schemes – For example:
- Business Loan Guarantee Schemes such as the £50,000 Bounce Back loans.
- Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
- Self-employed Income Support Scheme
- Cultural Recovery Fund.
- Eat Out to Help Out Scheme.
- It is well documented that not everybody who claimed under these schemes did so legitimately. It is estimated that around £10 billion of fraudulent claims were made.
- The Government has announced a ‘no questions asked’ amnesty for individuals and businesses to repay outstanding money they were not entitled to or did not need.
- The voluntary repayment scheme runs from 12th September 2025 to December 2025 (We assume 1stDecember).
- The Government state that the failure to repay within the deadline could result in prosecutions as they bring on board new investigatory powers.
- At the same time as announcing the Amnesty, HMRC have now set up the Covid fraud reporting website encouraging the public to report fraud.
Given that HMRC had stated that they would be investigating claims, the silence thus far has been deafening. It would appear however that they are finally wakening up to the fact that fraud on an industrial scale needs to be dealt with.