Documents had been deliberately manipulated

The taxpayer a firm of accountants made claims for support payments under the coronavirus job retention scheme (CJRS) covering the period from 23 March 2020 for an employee who had begun employment in December 2019.

In October 2020 HMRC wrote to the taxpayer advising it was opening a check into the support claims. The letter asked for information including bank statements and payslips which the taxpayer provided. HMRC considered that the taxpayer’s bank statements appeared to have been manipulated and included transactions where the font had been varied and spelling mistakes made.

The officer subsequently told the taxpayer that the employee for whom support had been claimed did not qualify under the CJRS because they had not been included in a real-time information (RTI) submission before 19 March 2020. HMRC had only been notified of the employee’s earnings in an RTI submission in...