Coronavirus: Help for the Self-employed

Expanding the UK Government’s measures to protect people and businesses from the economic impact of coronavirus, the Chancellor now focused on self-employed individuals (including members of partnerships) whose incomes have suffered.

The Self-employment Income Support Scheme, announced on 26 March 2020, will come as a welcome relief to those in self-employment, who comprise 15.3% of the UK’s workforce. The new scheme will cover 95% of those who are self-employed.

Under the scheme, a grant will be provided to self-employed individuals or partnerships, worth 80% of their profits up to a cap of £2,500 per month. This brings parity with the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, announced by the Chancellor last week, where the Government committed to pay up to £2,500 each month in wages of employed workers who are furloughed during the outbreak.

Second lump sum for self-employed [29/05/2020 UPDATE]
The Chancellor has announced a second and final grant to the self-employed who are eligible for the Self-employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS), based on 70% of earnings and capped at £6,570.

HMRC has confirmed the same eligibility criteria will be used to establish self-employed individuals’ entitlement to a further SEISS grant; the grant will be 70% rather than 80% of average earnings for three months and the maximum amount will be capped at £6,570, down from the £7,500 for the first grant. Applications will open in August and HMRC expects to publish further guidance on 12 June. As with the first claim, the second claim has to made by the taxpayer and cannot be made by agents.

QUALIFYING FOR THE SCHEME

• Self-employed or a member of a partnership
• Lost trading or partnership trading profits due to coronavirus (Covid-19)
• Filed a Tax Return for 2018-2019 as self-employed or a member of a trading partnership
  • Eligible individuals who have not yet submitted 2018-2019 Tax Returns will have another four weeks to file in order to become eligible for this scheme (at time of writing a deadline of 23 April 2020).
  • Not applicable to anyone who started trading in 2019-2020.
• Traded in 2019-2020 and were trading up until the point of application (or would be except for coronavirus)
• Intend to continue to trade in the tax year 2020-2021
• Trading profits of £50,000 or less 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:
  • Trading profits and total income in 2018-2019
  • Average trading profits and total income across up to the three years between 2016-2017, 2017-2018 and 2018-2019.

We are doing everything we can to help our business community. If you would like to discuss how the changes or the coronavirus pandemic may affect you or your business, please do not hesitate to contact us on 020 8952 7717 or use our online enquiry form.