People can now access the online portal setup by HMRC to claim a self employment support grant.
The third support payment covers the months of November 2020 through to January 2021, and has been upped to 80 percent of previous trading profits (capped to £7,500). You can calculate your self employment grant using our calculator.
When initially using the portal people are provided with the date they can start their claim. The third claim for SEISS differs from previous claims with a list of questions to ascertain whether a person's trade 'has been impacted due to the pandemic'.
Previous claims for SEISS 1 and 2 had a more broad question regarding the adverse affect on their trade.
Claims are required to satisfy:
- Business started before April 5th 2019.
- Submitted 2018/19 tax return before April 23rd 2020.
- Self-employed profits make up more than half the average annual income.
- Average profits between 2016/17 and 2018/19 less than £50,000.
The new SEISS 3 requires responses to specific question regarding the impact on a person's trade.
In order for a person to be eligible to receive a grant for Nov, Dec and Jan, the following conditions must be met:
- Currently still trading and have been impacted by reduced demand; or
- Person has been trading but is only temporarily closed due to the virus.
- Person must be intending to continue trading; and
- Have a reasonable belief that the pandemic will cause a significant reduction in their profits through reduced demand, activity, supply/demand, or inability to trade from November 2020 to January 2021.
The wording of the fourth point is the major difference. There needs to be 'significant' (a noticeable/great) amount of reduction to trade.
HMRC states examples of valid claims:
- People have fewer customers/clients than normally expected.
- People have contracts cancelled and not replaced.
- People have less work due to supply chain disruptions.
HMRC provides a number of examples to clarify the conditions and can be viewed here.