TC09552 - [2025] UKFTT 00704 (TC)

The appellant is a company which has run a small adventure farm park which includes both indoor and outdoor play areas and animal interaction and education facilities. Prior to the pandemic it employed up to 50 full-time staff and also part-time school and university students. The school students typically worked at the weekends and during the school holidays and the university students worked during the holidays. It was closed during the pandemic.

HMRC’s records disclose that the appellant submitted 35 claims for CJRS grant payments from 23 March 2020 until 30 September 2021. The correspondence suggested that the appellant’s payroll company (“JC”) had submitted all of the claims but in a telephone conversation with HMRC on 2 July 2020, Mr Chapman confirmed that JC had cost too much so he wished to submit the claims himself but was experiencing difficulty. He submitted all of the remaining claims, albeit JC continued to manage the payroll and submit the RTI FPS each month. They produced the payslips for the appellant.

The Employees in question in this appeal are Amy, Amelia and Anthony. It transpired in Closing Submissions that Anthony was Mr Chapman.