Self-Employment Income Support Scheme – Fifth Grant
The fifth grant under the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) will be available from late July 2021. If HMRC believe an individual may be eligible to make a claim they will contact them in mid-July to provide a date that the claim can be made from. A claim must be made on or before 30 September 2021.
The fifth grant should be claimed if business profits will be impacted by coronavirus between 1 May 2021 and 30 September 2021. To be eligible to make a claim the following criteria must be met:
- You must be a self-employed individual or a member of a partnership and you must also have traded in both the 2019/20 and 2020/21 tax years.
- 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 have trading profits at least equal to your non-trading income.
- You must 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.
The fifth grant is different from previous grants in that when making a claim individuals will need to inform HMRC about the business turnover so they can work out of the grant amount.
The grant amount will be either:
- If turnover is down by more than 30%: 80% of 3 months average trading profit capped at £7,500
- If turnover is down by less than 30%: 30% of 3 months average trading profit capped at £2,850
Turnover
To make a claim, 2 different turnover figures will be needed. Turnover will need to be worked out for:
- The 12-month period starting on any day between 1 April 2020 and 6 April 2020; and
- Either 2019/20 or 2018/19.
HMRC will then compare these figures to work out how much grant will be rewarded.
The 12-month period starting on any day between 1 April 2020 and 6 April 2020
You can find your 2020/21 turnover figures by:
- referring to your 2020/21 Self Assessment tax return (if completed);
- checking your accounting software (if used);
- checking bookkeeping or spreadsheet records;
- reviewing your bank account;
- asking your accountant.
Do NOT include the following in your turnover figures:
- previous SEISS grants;
- Eat Out to Help Out payments;
- local authority grants;
- anything reported as other income on your tax return.
Members in a partnership will have to work out their percentage share of the partnership’s turnover. For 2018/19 or 2019/20 this will be the same as the percentage of profit you took from the partnership in the year in question, even if your profit share percentage changed in 2020/21.
Either 2019/20 or 2018/19
You must use the turnover reported in your 2019/20 tax return as the reference year. The figure needs to be based on a 12-month period and include the total turnover for all your businesses. If 2019/20 was not a normal year for your business, you can use the turnover reported in your 2018/19 tax return. Your records should show how 2019/20 was not a normal year for you.
Depending on your business setup and how you file your return, turnover can be found in any of the following boxes on your tax return:
- SA200 (Self Assessment short tax return) – box 3.6
- SA103S (self-employment section – short) – box 9
- SA103F (self-employment section – full) – box 15
- SA800 (partnership tax return) – box 3.24 or 3.29
Full HMRC guidance on the fifth Self-Employment Income Support Scheme grant can be found here.
