COVID 19 Pandemic -financial support:

 
Self-employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS)  :

• will support; self-employed individuals (including members of partnerships) whose income has been negatively impacted by COVID-19.

 

• Limited company contractors have been excluded from the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS), announced by Chancellor

 

•  The scheme will provide a grant to self-employed individuals or partnerships, worth 80% of their profits up to a cap of £2,500 per month.
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To calculate the size of the grant HMRC will use the average profits from tax returns in:
 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19.

 The scheme will be open to those where the majority of their income comes from self-employment and who have profits of less than £50,000.
 The scheme will be open for an initial three months with people able to make their first claim by the beginning of June.
 
Eligibility criteria:

• Be self-employed or a member of partnership;

 

• Have lost trading/partnership trading profits due to COVID-19;

 

• File a tax return for 2018-19 as self-employed or a member of a trading partnership.

 Those who have not yet filed for 2018-19 will have an additional 4 weeks from this announcement to do so;
 

• Have traded in 2019-20; be currently trading at the point of application (or would be except for COVID 19) and intend to continue to trade in the tax year 2020 to 2021

 

• Have trading profits of less than £50,000 and more than half of your total income come from self-employment.

 This can be with reference to at least one of the following conditions:

1. Your trading profits and total income in 2018/19
2. Your average trading profits and total income across up to the three years between 2016-17, 2017-18, and 2018-19.

Accessibility:
 
How:

• Individuals should not contact HMRC now.

 

•  HMRC will use existing information to check potential eligibility and invite applications once the scheme is operational.

 
 

•  HMRC will then pay the grant directly to eligible claimants’ bank account.

 

•  HMRC is urgently working to deliver the scheme; grants are expected to start to be paid out by beginning of June 2020.

 

•  For eligible individuals who have not submitted their returns for 2018-19, they will have 4 weeks’ notice from the date of the announcement to file their returns and therefore become eligible for this scheme.

 
When:

• -HMRC is urgently working to deliver the scheme; grants are expected to start to be paid by the beginning of June 2020.

 

•  This time is necessary to ensure that the scheme is both deliverable and fair.

 

•  In the interim the self-employed will still able eligible for other government support including more generous universal credit and business continuity loans.