Following on from the governments announcement yesterday, we have summarised the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme below:
Who Can Apply?
• You can apply for this scheme if you are a self-employed person or a member of a partnership
• You must have submitted your 2018/19 self assessment tax return
• If you have not yet submitted your 2018-19 tax year the government have given you until 23 April 2020 to do so.
• You must have traded in the year 2019-20
• You must be intending to continue to trade in 2020-21
• You must have lost profits due to Covid 19
• Your self employed trading profits must be less than £50,000 in 2018-19 or an average trading profit of less than £50,000 from 2016-17, 2017,18 and 2018-19 • At least half your income must be from self employment
How much will you get?
• You will get a taxable grant equal to 80% of the average profits for the tax years 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19
• To work out the average HMRC will add together the total trading profit for these 3 years
• If you have less than 3 years trading this is acceptable and the averaging will be done as appropriate
• The grant will be a maximum of £2,500 per month for 3 months
• The grant will be paid directly into your bank in one instalment
How to apply
• You cannot apply for the scheme yet
• HMRC will contact you directly if you are eligible for the scheme and invite you to apply online
• The government has stressed that individuals should not contact HMRC directly and doing so will only delay the implementation of the scheme
• Once you have applied, HMRC will contact you with how much grant you qualify for and the payment details
Who does not qualify
• Anybody who has become self employed since 6th April 2019 does not qualify for this scheme
• Those who pay themselves a salary and dividends through their own company do not qualify, but will be covered for their salary element through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme if it is reported through a PAYE scheme
Should you require further clarification on the above, or any other matter, please contact your Fairhurst partner.
