The government's headline support scheme for the self employed with incomes adversely affected by the pandemic and associated restrictions, SEISS, will open applications on Monday 17th August for the second (and currently final) grant portion.
People will have until October 19th 2020 to make a claim for self employed income support that now covers the months of June, July and August. This second phase is based on 70 percent of the average turnover for the last three years and is capped to a maximum payout of £6,570. You can use our second SEISS calculator to see how much you could receive or our SEISS calculator to see the total payout for both grants combined.
Claims will require applicants to confirm that they have been adversely affected by the pandemic on or after July 14th 2020. Applicants do not have to have claimed the first SEISS grant, which covered March, April and May, to be able to get the second grant.
In addition, applicants will have to meet the following requirements:
- Average trading profits for the last three years of submitted tax returns (2016/17,2017/18 and 2018/19) must be less than £50,000.
- Applicants must have traded in the 2018/19 tax year and submitted the tax return for that tax year before April 23rd 2020.
- Applicants must have traded in the 2019/20 tax year and are planning to continue to trade in the 2020/21 tax year.
The government is continuing to operate their online website for applications, which is available at https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/self-employment-support/enter-unique-taxpayer-reference.
Looking at statistics released by the government for the first phase of the self employed grants, 2.4 million people claimed an average of £2,900 for the first three months.
It is important to remember that these grants are still taxable as income and will need to be declared as such on tax returns. Depending upon the accounting method used, one month's instalment (March) from the first phase will be declared as income on the tax return for 2019/20. This means the tax due will be paid January 31st 2021. The remainder of the instalments will be on the tax return for 2020/21, which means the tax due will be paid January 31st 2022.