Small firms can claim their £250 incentive

HM Revenue & Customs has advised small businesses they can now claim the £250 incentive payment for online filings.

The scheme has met with criticism after claims that the Revenue was erroneously chasing customers for an under-payment of the incentive amount. The Revenue later apologised.

The position has been clarified with a notice on HMRC's website which reads:

Online filing 2006

If you had fewer than 50 employees in November 2004 and sent your 2005-06 Employer's Annual Return online, you can get your £250 straight away simply by deducting it from your next PAYE payment to us.

If you are one of the few employers who cannot get your £250 this way, you will need to wait until we have sent you an online notice confirming that we have credited £250 to your PAYE account. You can then claim a cheque payment from us.

The majority of tax-free payment online notices have now been issued and can be viewed using the PAYE DPS service.

If you want us to send you email alerts when you have new notices and reminders to deal with, you must use the link 'provide us with an email address' on your PAYE service page. You must do this even if you did this at registration or got email alerts in 2005/06.