If you are self-employed or a member of a partnership and have been impacted by coronavirus, you might be able to claim the fifth Self-Employment Income Support Scheme Grant (SEISS) from HMRC.

If you are eligible, based on your submitted tax returns, HMRC will contact you in mid-July to provide you with a claim date. The scheme is due to open from late July and you must claim before 30 September 2021.

You must have been impacted by Coronavirus between 1 May 2021 – 30 September 2021.

Eligibility –

The eligibility for this claim is different to the previous three claims, check if you are eligible for the scheme below;

Stage 1 – Trading status

• You must be a self-employed individual or a member of a partnership.
• You must have traded in both years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021.

Stage 2 – Trading profits

• You must have submitted your 2019-2020 tax return on or before 2 March 2021.
• Your trading profits are of no more than £50,000
• Your trading profits are at least equal to your non-trading income

Please be advised if you are not eligible based on the trading profits in your 2019 to 2020 tax return, HMRC will look back at the three previous tax years returns.

Stage 3 – Can you claim?

To be able to make the claim you must declare the below to HMRC;

• You must tell HMRC that you intend to keep trading in the tax year 2021 – 2022.
• You must reasonably believe there will be a significant reduction in your trading profits due to the impact of COVID-19 between 1 May 2021 and 30 September 2021.

Information for the claim and calculation –

You will need to provide HMRC with details of your business turnover, so they can work out the SEISS grant amount you are eligible for. If you started trading in 2019-2020 and did not trade in the previous three tax years, you will need the two below turnover figures:

• A turnover for a 12-month period starting between 1 April 2020 and 6 April 2020
• A turnover for a 12-month turnover period for the tax year 2019-2020 or 2018-2019

Your turnover will determine how much grant income you will be entitled to –

• If your turnover is down by 30% or more, you will get 80% of 3 months’ average trading profits up to a maximum of £7,500
• If your turnover is down by less than 30%, you will get 30% of 3 months’ average trading profits up to a maximum of £2,850

As per the previous four grants, this grant is subject to tax and national insurance, as this must be reported on your 2021 – 2022 Self-Assessment tax return.

For further information on trading profits, please visit HMRC.  

If you have submitted both tax returns, please do not hesitate to contact us for your annual turnover figures. We would be able to provide to you the figures which you require for your claim.

If you have any questions in relation to the grants, please do not hesitate to contact our team on 01724 848343 – we would be able to provide further advice in relation to the SEISS grant.