Self-Employed Income Support SEISS claiming the 5th final grant

Posted on 24th September 2021 by David Rudd

Application must be made before 30 Sept 2021

This e-mail is relevant to self-employed taxpayers.

The final Self-Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS) grant covers the period from 1 May 2021 to 30 September 2021 (five months). Online applications must be made before 30 September 2021 and the process is far from simple. This is an alert to self-employed traders that have not yet considered a claim and it sets out eligibility details and the information you will need to pull together to make a claim.

Who can make a claim?

We have reproduced below HMRC’s three stage process that you will need to clear in order to apply:

Stage 1: Your trading status and when you must have traded

You must be a self-employed individual or a member of a partnership. You must also have traded in both tax years 2019-20 and 2020-21. You cannot claim the grant if you trade through a limited company or a trust.

Stage 2: Tax returns and trading profits

You must have submitted your 2019-20 tax return on or before 2 March 2021, have trading profits of no more than £50,000, and trading profits at least equal to your non-trading income.

Non-trading income is any money that you make outside of your business. For example, if you also have a part-time job or pension.

If you are not eligible based on the trading profits in your 2019-20 return, HMRC will look back at previous years. HMRC should already have contacted you if you are eligible for the grant based on your tax returns.

Stage 3: Deciding if you can claim

When you make your claim, you must tell HMRC that you:

• intend to keep trading in 2021-22, and
• 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.

How to make a claim

As with previous SEISS grants, you will need to make a claim for the fifth and final grant, to 30 September 2021, by completing an online application. However, for this application you will also need to supply turnover details for the tax year 2020-21 and either 2019-20 or 2018-29.

Your personal claim date

You should receive an email, SMS or letter from HMRC advising you of your “Personal Claim Date”. This is the date from which you can make your claim for the 5th and final SEISS grant. Do not claim before this date as it will not be processed.

Preparing turnover figures

As part of the claims process HMRC will need additional turnover figures as part of the 5th grant application. Take a look at the below link from HMRC in order to work out your turnover numbers:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/work-out-your-turnover-so-you-can-claim-the-fifth-seiss-grant

We can help you calculate these numbers. The 5th grant will be paid at two rates depending on whether your turnover has fallen by more or less than 30%.

Turnover details will not be required if you started self-employment in 2019-20 and had not traded in any of the tax years 2018-19, 2017-18 or 2016-17. Turnover details are required as the fifth grant will be calculated on two levels. 

1. If your turnover is reduced by 30% or more you will get 80% of three months average trading profits capped at £7,500.
2. If your turnover is down by less than 30% you will get 30% of three months average trading profits capped at £2,850.

Taxpayers who were newly self-employed in 2019-20

If you fall into this category, HMRC may send you a letter asking for proof of identity and trade information via Dropbox. As part of the process HMRC will also call you.  You will not be able to make a claim unless you respond to these requests.

If online process is not available

A small number of taxpayers will receive a letter from HMRC asking them to call if they want to make a claim. The online service will not be available if you receive this letter.  To claim, you will need to call the number on the letter.

Beware scams…

Fraudsters will no doubt attempt to piggy-back on these processes to obtain personal information or your bank details. If you are at all unsure if a letter, email or SMS is genuine, please call so we can advise or call HMRC by using a contact number on the GOV.UK website (https://www.gov.uk).

There is also a list of genuine HMRC contacts made at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-a-list-of-genuine-hmrc-contacts

Source material: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-a-grant-through-the-coronavirus-covid-19-self-employment-income-support-scheme

How we can help

Remember, you can only claim the grant if you have been adversely affected by the pandemic, and grants received under the scheme are taxable and must be considered in working out your profits.  If you are unsure how to proceed please call us.

Although we cannot directly make claims for clients, we can help if you are unsure if you should make a claim or you are having difficulty completing the online application process.

The Steven Burton & Co team are here to help you.  If you need a sounding board, some advice or a steer in the right direction, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

This material has been prepared for informational guidance purposes only.  Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the contents are accurate, information contained may not be comprehensive.  Furthermore it is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax or accounting advice.  Steven Burton & Co Limited can not accept any liability for any errors or omission or for any person acting on or refraining from acting on the information provided.