Josoemag Services Limited v The Commissioners for HMRC
Decision date: 15 August 2024
Neutral citation: [2024] UKFTT 744 (TC)
Overall AI summary confidence: high
Short overview
This short overview is intended to summarise the case, issues and outcome so far as they are supported by the judgment.
AI confidence in this short overview: high
Josoemag Services Ltd claimed CJRS reimbursements for 17 employees but HMRC assessed entitlement differently after review, disallowing one employee (OF) for not being on RTI by the relevant CJRS date and reducing the total assessed repayable to £51,244.79. The tribunal found JSL had used incorrect calculation methods (misclassifying employees as fixed-rate and using wrong reference pay dates) and upheld HMRC’s recalculation except for the OF claim, dismissed JSL’s additional deduction claims (employer NICs, PAYE tax, pensions) and dismissed the appeal. Parties may apply for permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal.
Ratio decidendi
This summary is intended to identify the ratio decidendi, meaning the legal reasons for deciding and the binding part of the decision.
AI confidence in this ratio decidendi summary: medium
The tribunal treated the RTI cut-off in the CJRS Directions (the relevant CJRS day) as an absolute eligibility requirement for claims submitted in a Schedule A1 return, and held that an HMRC officer’s opinion to raise an assessment under para 9 Sch 16 FA 2020 can be objectively reasonable even if later calculations contain errors, provided the officer acted on reasonable grounds.
Obiter dicta
This summary is intended to identify obiter dicta, meaning observations made by the way that were not necessary to deciding the case and are not binding.
AI confidence in this obiter dicta summary: medium
The tribunal noted it lacked jurisdiction in this appeal to consider broader fairness or legitimate expectation/public law complaints about the CJRS, and commented that the legislative CJRS scheme confines reimbursement to specified employer costs and statutory recovery mechanisms rather than requiring HMRC to seek repayments from employees.