Self-employed potential claimants are eagerly awaiting notification as to whether they will be able to claim a fifth Self Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS) grant to help ease the impact to their earnings, impacted due to Coronavirus.
When will I receive my SEISS grant notification?
Anyone eligible to claim the SEISS grant should keep an eye out for an email with their personal claim date, sent from HMRC, which you should receive any day now.
To help with loss or reduced earnings from May to September 2021, the grant enables you to claim up to 80 per cent of trading profits or the equivalent of £7,500 over three months (whichever is greater).
However, HMRC states that you should only claim the fifth grant if you believe your business profits were or will be impacted by the coronavirus between 1st May 2021 and 30th September 2021. Each claim must be supported by the appropriate evidence and records, which your business accountant can provide you, supporting your claim that your business has been impacted.
What is the criteria for claiming the fifth SEISS grant?
In short, nothing has really changed from the fourth grant criteria. As before, you must be a self-employed individual or member of a partnership and you were trading in the tax year 2019-20 and 2020-21. Your business must also still be active and trading or temporarily unable to do so due to the Coronavirus.
In addition, you must have filed your 2019/2020 tax return on or before the 2nd of March 2021, with trading profits of no greater than £50,000. Your trading profits must be at least equal to or more than your non-trading income. This income is classed as earnings outside of your business, such as through an investment or PAYE work.
Although the criteria remains somewhat the same, the fifth grant is still different from previous grants and as such, when making your claim, you'll need to tell HMRC about your business' turnover to enable them to calculate your grant amount.
How do I claim my SEISS grant?
In order to apply for the grant, you'll need to have two separate turnover figures to hand. The first being your turnover for the 12 month period starting in April 2020 and the second is from either 2019 to 2020 or 2018 to 2019 if available. HMRC will use this information to calculate how much you're eligible to receive.
How much can I claim for my SEISS grant?
There are two levels of the fifth SEISS grant, which is different from previous grants. Using your two turnover figures, HMRC will calculate how much your turnover is down for this period. For example, if your turnover is down 30 percent or more, you'll receive 80 percent of three months average trading profits. This is to a maximum of £7,500. However, if the calculations show your turnover is down by less than 30 percent, you'll receive 30 percent of three months average trading profits, to a maximum of £2,850.
Don't forget, any money you receive from the grant will be subject to income tax and self-employed National Insurance. Your accountant or you should also report this income in your 2021 to 2022 self-assessment tax return.
What to do now?
If you're still unclear on the SEISS grant or need support with claiming your grant, please speak to one of our local accountants who will be happy to answer any questions you may have. If you're an existing client of ours, your dedicated accountant will be in touch shortly to offer everything you need in order to claim your SEISS grant.
