On 26 March 2020, the government announced that they would be providing financial support for self-employed businesses that have been affected by the Coronavirus outbreak.
A grant will be available for self-employed companies and partnerships that have lost income over the past few weeks.
Who is eligible to claim?
There are specific criteria set for businesses that can claim via the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme; these are as follows:
- You have submitted your Self-Assessment tax return for 2018 to 2019
- You were trading in the tax year 2019 to 2020
- You are still trading when you apply or would be except for coronavirus
- You intend to continue to trade in the tax year 2020 to 2021
- You have lost trading profits due to coronavirus
In addition to these criteria, your training profits need to be less than £50K, and your trading profit should contribute to more than half of your annual income. If you earn income through other means, e.g. employment and this provided more than half of your income in 2018 -19 then you will not be eligible.
How much can you claim?
HMRC will calculate what your average trading profit was over three years.
- 2016 to 2017
- 2017 to 2018
- 2018 to 2019
To find out in more detail how this is calculated click here – How HMRC works out total income and trading profits for the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme.
If you have not submitted your tax return for last year or the previous three years, then please contact us so we can advise you on what to do. HMRC is accepting submission of the 2018 – 2019 self-assessment forms up until 23 April 2020 to help with this calculation.
The Self-Employment Income Support Scheme grant will be 80% of your average trading profit, divided by 12, which will give a monthly amount. HMRC will pay this or up to a maximum of £2,500 a month, whichever is lower.
What is the process for making a claim?
It is essential to note that it is not possible to make a claim yet. The guidance that we have received states that HMRC will contact each business directly by letter and invite you to claim the GOV.UK online service. If you receive any information via text or email, this is likely to be a scam.
To help you further we have created the diagram below which summarises the process we have described. If you need any further advice, please contact us.
You can call 01623 490 120 or email