Posted by jonathanfullarton - October 1, 2021 11:25 pm
Self Employment Support Scheme – SEISS – Self Employed Grant
Now closed
The Self Employment Support Scheme is now closed with the last deadline for making fifth and final claims being the 30 September 2021.
If you made a claim under this scheme you must report this on your tax return. For more information click here.
What is the Self Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS)?
The Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) is a government initiative designed to help provide support for self-employed individuals whose businesses have been adversely affected by COVID-19. For more details on the SEISS Grant and how to apply please scroll down the page.
Claiming the 5th SEISS Grant
You should now have been contacted by HMRC with a date from which you can make a claim for the fifth and final SEISS payment. You can make a claim if you believe that your business profit will be impacted by coronavirus (Covid-19) between 1 May 2021 and 30 September 2021.
Are you eligible?
In order to be eligible to make a claim for the Self Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) grant you must meet all the criteria in stages 1-3 below:
Stage 1 – your trading status
- You must be a self-employed individual or a member of a partnership. You cannot claim if you trade as a limited company or a Trust.
- You must have traded in both tax years 2019 – 2020 and 2020 – 2021.
Stage 2 – tax returns and trading profits
You must also have:
- submitted your 2019-2020 tax return on or before the 2 March 2021 deadline.
- trading profits of no more than £50,000.
- trading profits at least to equal of your non-trading income.
If you are not eligible on your trading profits for the tax year 2019 – 2020 HMRC will look back at your previous tax returns to make a judgement.
Stage 3 – Deciding if you can claim
When making your claim you need to inform HMRC on the following:
- that you intend to continue trading in 2021 and 2022.
- that you reasonably believe there will be a significant reduction in your trading profits due to the impact of Covid-19 between the period 1 May to 30 September 2021.
Circumstances which will affect your claim for SEISS
Please note that the following scenarios may affect your SEISS claim:
- your tax return is late, is subsequently amended or is under enquiry.
- you are a member of a partnership.
- you have had a new child.
- you have loans covered by the loan charge provisions.
- you claim averaging relief.
- you are a military reservist.
- you are a non-resident or chose the remittance basis.
However, claims for Maternity Allowance will not affect your eligibility for the 5th SEISS grant.
What you need
Unlike the previous Self Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) payments the fifth grant will be handled differently. When making your claim you will need to inform HMRC about your business turnover in order that they can calculate the amount of grant you will receive.
To make a claim you will need to have two different turnover figures for April 2020 – April 2021 and either 2019 to 2020 or 2018 to 2019.
How much you’ll get
There are two levels of grant available and HMRC will calculate your grant amount after comparing your turnover figures.
This will translate to:
| % your turnover is down | Amount you will receive | Maximum grant amount |
| 30% or more** | 80% of 3 months’ average trading profits | £7,500 |
| less than 30%* | 30% of 3 months’ average trading profits | £2,850 |
Example
HMRC have issued the following example on how you can calculate the level of n=maximum grant you will receive, based on a business with average trading profits of £42,000 over the last 4 tax years.
£42,000
Divide by 12 = £3,500.
Multiply by 3 = £10,500.
If you are eligible for the higher grant**:
Work out 80% of £10,500 = £8,400.
You will receive a maximum grant of £7,500.
If you are eligible for the lower grant*:
Work out 30% of £10,500 = £3,150.
You will receive a maximum grant of £2,850.
If you do not need turnover figures to claim you will get 80% of 3 months’ average trading profits capped at a maximum of £7,500.
How the grant is treated for tax purposes
Please note that the SEISS grant is subject to both Income Tax and Self-Employed National Insurance contributions, Any grant must be reported on your 2021 – 2022 Self-Assessment tax return.
For more details on SEISS please visit the GOV.UK site here.
Our Help
If you are confused about the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) then please do not hesitate to contact your nearest MFW office for help. Whilst we are unable to make the claim on your behalf we can talk you through the process.
Our additional services to help you cope
Many businesses will see an impact on staff absences caused through self-isolation. We can help with any immediate needs to cover key functions. These include:
- Virtual financial staffing cover
- Virtual FD services
- Cash flow forecasting
- Financial forecasts to help you in obtaining business loan funding from banks
- Advice with loan repayment holidays, overdraft extensions etc.
- Bookkeeping
- Payroll & BACS services
- Credit control and business continuity services
- Cloud accounting software solutions Alternatively, please contact your local MFW office (link) for further information as to how
Beware of ‘HMRC spamming’
If you receive texts, calls or emails claiming to be from HMRC, offering financial help or a tax refund and asking you to click on a link or to give personal information, it is a scam. Please report any such incidences to HMRC at phishing@hmrc.gov.uk. Do not open any links and delete the email.
