While welcoming the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS), ACCA UK (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) is advising that agents, the accountants who act for their self-employed clients, should be allowed to help them make the claim.
HMRC has written to all those eligible, explaining, “You’ll need to make the claim yourself, although you can seek advice from an agent, if you use one.”
For Claire Bennison, head of ACCA UK, this means agents are being excluded from an important process for their clients. ‘We’ve heard from our UK members that agents want to be more involved, and clients are asking why they can’t help them. Given this grant is subject to Income Tax and self-employed National Insurance, agents who act on behalf of their clients need to know what they receive if their claim is successful.
Read the full article in the International Accounting Bulletin here