You can now apply for the 5th Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) grant – the final date for making a claim is 30th September 2021.
To qualify for the grant, average trading profits must be £50,000 or less and non-trading income cannot exceed 50% of your total income. This time around, the grant will be paid, based on turnover and HMRC are currently in the process of contacting eligible taxpayers to notify them of their personal claim date. You will be able to make claims from this date up until the claims service closes on 30th September 2021.
Most taxpayers will need to provide turnover figures to make a claim and these will be used to compare the ‘pandemic year’ with a ‘reference period’. For most self-employed the turnover reported in 2019-20 should be used as the reference year. However, this is not always the case and if 2019-20 was not a normal year for the business in question, the turnover reported in 2018-19 can be used.
Newly self-employed people who had previously been excluded from claims because they commenced their trade during the 2019-20 tax year, are eligible to claim the fifth SEISS grants if their tax return for 2019-20 was filed by midnight 2 March 2021. They must also have traded or intended to trade in 2020-21 and intend to continue doing so.
There is a change to this final grant and this time, the grant is capped based on turnover. Here’s how it works:
The grant will see those whose turnover has fallen by 30% or more continuing to receive the full 80% grant (capped at £7,500) whilst those whose turnover has fallen by less than 30% will receive a 30% grant (capped at £2,850).
The rules governing this grant are much more complex than for previous grants and the below is only a summary. HMRC will do their own calculation and contact anyone they think qualifies.
This final grant will cover the period May 2021 to September 2021 and there has been some guidance published from HMRC to help you calculate your turnover, for making a claim.
HMRC states you can;
- Refer to your 2020 to 2021 Self-Assessment tax return if you’ve completed it
- Check your accounting software (if you use any)
- Go through your bookkeeping or spreadsheet records that cover your self-employment invoices and payments received
- Check the bank account you use for your business to account for money coming in from customers
- Ask your accountant or tax advisor
If you want to read the full guidance, as published by HMRC, this is the place to look – https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-a-grant-through-the-coronavirus-covid-19-self-employment-income-support-scheme – with more information here – https://www.gov.uk/guidance/how-hmrc-works-out-total-income-and-trading-profits-for-the-self-employment-income-support-scheme
Here at CBS, our team want to help make this application as easy as possible for you, as we know the last 18 months have been taxing – excuse the pun! If you would like us to help you work out what you are eligible to claim, give us a call on 01509 816150 or use the contact form below and we can support you in this process to ensure your claim is made correctly, and before the deadline.
