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In March 2020, the UK government announced a support scheme to aid those whose income has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Also known as the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS), this package allows eligible groups of people to claim these amounts in their tax forms - considering they have met all the criteria set forth.

How do I know whether I am eligible? How do I go about the claiming process? What is the amount I would actually receive?

In this blog post, we answer all of your questions in this quick breakdown.

1. Are you eligible?

The SEISS grants are issued in five parts, from SEISS 1 to 5. Generally, HMRC will automatically invite you to make an online claim if you’re eligible for the first wave of grants. If your eligibility is confirmed, you can also claim for the second stage.

[SEISS 1 & 2] You could claim under the first and second rounds of the scheme if you were a self-employed individual or member of a partnership, and you:

• carry on a trade which has been adversely affected by COVID-19 (for example because you’re unable to work, or you have had to scale down/stop trading);
• traded in the tax years 2018-19 and 2019-20;
• submitted your self-assessment return for the tax year 2018-19 on or before 23 April 2020;
  intend to continue trading in 2020-21

These are the extra criteria - on top of the above - that you can check yourself against for the subsequent grants:

[SEISS 3] 

• The trade must have suffered from reduced activity, capacity or demand in the period from 1 November 2020 to 29 January 2021 as a result of COVID-19
• You must reasonably believe you will suffer a significant reduction in trading profits for the basis period including those months as a result.
  

[SEISS 4 & 5]: You must have traded in both -

• Tax year 2019-20 (and submitted your tax return by 2 March 2021); and
• Tax year 2020 to 2021
  

* PROFITS CONDITION: Keep in mind this important condition that applies across all SEISS grants:

[SEISS 1 to 3]

A. For tax year 2018-19, your trading profits were:

• greater than nil, but no more than £50,000, and
• at least equal to your non-trading income for the year.

B. You traded in each of tax years 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 and:

• your average trading profits for those years were greater than nil, but no more than than £50,000, 
• the total of those profits was at least equal to your non-trading income for those years.

C. You traded in tax years 2017-18 and 2018-19, but not 2016-17, and

• your average trading profits for the tax years 2017-18 and 2018-19 were greater than nil, but no more than £50,000, and
• the total of those profits was at least equal to your non-trading income for those tax years.
  

[SEISS 4 & 5]

HMRC will first look at trading profits and non-trading income in tax-year 2019-20 to see if these are:

• greater than nil, but no more than £50,000, and
• at least equal to your non-trading income for the year.
  

If this is not the case, HMRC will look at the overall position in the four tax years from 2016-17 to 2019-20.

2. How can you claim?

To make a claim, make sure you have the following info on-hand:

• Your self-assessment Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) number;
• Your National Insurance number;
• Your Government Gateway user ID and password
• Details of the bank account you want the grant to be paid into.

You should make your claims using HMRC’s online claims portal. Also, make sure that you make your claim personally instead of doing it through your agent - because this will potentially trigger a fraud alert and delay payments.

Keep a handy record of the amount claimed, your claim reference number and evidence that your business has been adversely affected by coronavirus.

3. How much can you get?

Here is a handy estimation of the amount of grants you’re subject to receive, under each SEISS wave:

• SEISS 1: 80% of average trading profits for a three-month period, subject to an overall cap of £7,500.
• SEISS 2: 70% of average trading profits for a three-month period, and capped at £6,570.
• SEISS 3: 80% of average trading profits for a three-month period, and capped at £7,500.
• SEISS 4: 80% of average trading profits for a three-month period, capped at £7,500 in total.
• SEISS 5: Depends on how much your turnover was reduced in the year April 2020 to April 2021:
  
  • If your turnover was reduced by 30% or more - you can receive 80% of 3 months’ average trading profits, capped at £7,500.
  • If your turnover was reduced by less than 30% - you can receive 30% of 3 months’ average trading profits, capped at £2,850.

We hope this was a useful guide in helping you learn more about self-employment support. If you need further help, don’t hesitate to reach out to us - Right Accounts professional and affordable tax-filing services for self-employed individuals like you - from the fixed price of £95.

You can contact us here.

IMPORTANT: 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. You should email it to [email protected] and then delete it.