Can You Claim Through The Self-Employment Income Support Scheme?

Can you claim a grant through the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme?

If you’re self-employed or a member of a partnership and have been impacted by COVID-19, you might be able to claim a grant from the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS).

Who can claim?

To claim a SEISS grant, you must meet all of the criteria in the following three stages:

Stage 1: Your trading status and when you must have traded

You must be a self-employed individual or member of a partnership, and you must also have traded in both the 2019–20 and 2020–21 tax years.

You cannot claim the grant if you trade through a limited company or trust.

Stage 2: Tax returns and trading profits

You must have submitted your 2019/20 tax return before or on 2nd March 2021, have trading profits of no more than £50,000 and at least equal to your non-trading income. Your non-trading income is any money that you make outside of your business, for example, if you have a part-time job or pension.

If you’re not eligible based on the trading profits in your 2019–2020 return, HMRC will look back at previous years.

HMRC will contact you in mid-July if you’re eligible for the grant based on your tax returns. They will give you a date that you can make your claim, which you will receive by email, text, letter, or within the online service.

Find out more about how HMRC works out trading profits and non-trading income here.

Stage 3: Deciding if you can claim

When you make your claim, you must tell HMRC that you intend to keep trading in 2021/22 and reasonably believe there will be a significant reduction in your trading profits due to the impact of COVID-19 between 1 May 2021 and 30 September 2021

Will anything affect my eligibility for the scheme?

There are circumstances you should take into account, such as:

your return is late, amended or under enquiry
you’re a member of a partnership
you had a new child
you have loans covered by the loan charge provisions
you claim averaging relief
you’re a military reservist
you’re non-resident or chose the remittance basis

Maternity Allowance will not affect your eligibility for the grant.

Find out more about how your circumstances affect your eligibility here .

Preparing to make a claim

The fifth grant is different from previous grants. In most cases, when making your claim, you’ll need to tell HMRC about your business turnover so they can work out your grant amount. This includes the takings, fees, sales, or money earned or received by your business.

To make your claim, you’ll need to have two different turnover figures. You’ll need to work out your turnover for a 12-month period starting between 1st April 2020 and 6th April 2020, and either 2019–20 or 2018–19. HMRC will compare these figures to work out how much you’ll get.

Find out how to work out your turnover here so you can claim the grant.

If you started trading in 2019-20 and did not trade in 2018-19, 2017-18, or 2016-17, HMRC will not ask you for any turnover figures.

How much will I get?

If you need to tell HMRC about your turnover, there are two levels of grant. HMRC will work out your grant amount based on how much your turnover is down after they’ve compared your two turnover figures.

If your turnover is down by 30% or more, you’ll get 80% of 3 months’ average trading profits, up to a maximum of £7,500.

If your turnover is down by less than 30%, then you’ll get 30% of 3 months’ average trading profits, up to a maximum of £2,850.

If you do not need to provide turnover figures to claim, you’ll get 80% with a maximum grant amount of £7500.

How do I make a claim?

The online service to claim the fifth grant will be available in late July 2021.

As we mentioned earlier, HMRC will contact you to give you a date that you can make your claim from.

When can I claim until?

You must make your claim on or before 30th September 2021.

Be wary of suspicious activity claiming to be HMRC

You can check a list of genuine HMRC contacts if you receive any suspicious texts, calls, or emails claiming to be from HMRC, as this may be a scam.

How is the grant treated?

The grant is subject to Income Tax and self-employed National Insurance Contributions.
It must be reported on your 2021 self-assessment tax return.
The grant also counts towards your annual allowance for pension contributions.
SEISS grants are not counted as ‘access to public funds’, and you can claim the grant on all categories of work visas.

You can find out more about the grant as well as other financial support you might be able to receive.