Taxpayer was not eligible for self-employed grant

The taxpayer’s 2018-19 tax return showed that his self-employment ceased on 31 July 2018 and that he had been employed by his company since then. He had incorporated his business in July and become a director.

In May and August 2020 the taxpayer applied for and received grants through the self-employment income support scheme (SEISS). After a post-payment compliance check HMRC said the payments should be repaid because the taxpayer was not self-employed.

The taxpayer appealed saying he had not seen any of the SEISS eligibility criteria when he completed the online application. He thought the criteria was that he had been self-employed in the years to 2016-17 to 2018-19. Information about needing to trade in 2020-21 was not in the screenshots which he saw when applying.

The First-tier Tribunal took the view that the screenshots are almost entirely irrelevant in deciding an appeal against an assessment although...