Self-Employment Income Support Scheme Clarification

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has issued further details of eligibility for the second round of the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS), which will provide taxable grants to self-employed individuals.

The grants will be 70 per cent of average monthly trading profits, capped at £6,570 and paid in a single instalment.

HMRC has now clarified that in order to qualify for the second grant, a self-employed individual must confirm that their trading has been adversely affected by the coronavirus outbreak on or after 14 July 2020.

This means it is possible for a self-employed individual not to have qualified for the first round of funding by virtue of not having been adversely affected, but to qualify for the second round because they have subsequently been adversely affected. This might be in circumstances where they become unwell with Coronavirus in July and are then unable to trade as a consequence.

However, this also means that some self-employed individuals who were able to confirm that their business was adversely affected for the first round of funding may find that this is no longer the case and so do not qualify for the second round of funding.

The criteria to qualify for the scheme otherwise remain unchanged and apply to self-employed individuals and members of partnerships:

• you traded in the tax year 2018 to 2019 and submitted your Self Assessment tax return on or before 23 April 2020 for that year
• you traded in the tax year 2019 to 2020
• you intend to continue to trade in the tax year 2020 to 2021
• you carry on a trade which has been adversely affected by coronavirus

Applications for the current round of funding, worth 80 per cent of monthly trading profits and capped at £7,500 in total remain open here until 13 July 2020.

Meanwhile, details of the second round of funding will be published at a later date.