The Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) is currently accepting applications for the third self-employed grant, which is worth 80% of average monthly trading profits, capped at £7,500 in total.
The Self-Employment Income Support Scheme is made up of four grants. While the first two are closed, the third grant, which covers November to January, is now open. And with much of the UK in lockdown again, many businesses are now eligible.
To be eligible for the Grant Extension self-employed individuals, including members of partnerships, must:
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have been previously eligible for the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme first and second grant (although they do not have to have claimed the previous grants)
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declare that they intend to continue to trade and either: – are currently actively trading but are impacted by reduced demand due to coronavirus – were previously trading but are temporarily unable to do so due to coronavirus
The third grant covers the period from 1 November 2020 to the end of January 2021 and it is now open to applications. The deadline to apply is 29 January 2021. This is to ensure HMRC’s systems can cope with the volume of traffic – as the deadline for filing self-assessment income tax returns is 31 January 2021. You can get as much as £7,500. This is made up of 80% of three months’ worth of average monthly trading profits capped at £2,500per month. To calculate this, HMRC looks at your tax returns from 2018/19, 2017/18 and 2016/17. This is exactly what the first grant was worth.
NOTE: The max amount that you can claim has been upped THREE TIMES since SEISS 3 was first announced. At first, it was announced that it’d be worth £1,875 (20% of average profits), and then this was upped to a max of £3,750 (so 40% of average profits) and then increased to a max of £5,160 (55% of average profits), and finally to the current £7,500.
How to claim
In order to process a claim under the SEISS, you will need:
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Self-Assessment Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) – if you do not have this, find out how to access your lost UTR
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National Insurance (NI) Number – if you do not have this, find out how to access your NI
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Government Gateway User ID & Password – if you do not have a User ID, you can create one when making your claim
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UK Bank Details (only provide bank account details where a Bacs payment can be accepted!) This includes: bank account number, sort code, name on the account and the address linked to your bank account
Note: You must make the claim yourself. If your tax agent or financial adviser claims it on your behalf, it will trigger a fraud alert.
