Final SEISS claim’s deadline

Application must be made before 30 Sept 2021  

The final Self-Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS) grant covers the period from 1 May 2021 to 30 September 2021 (five months). Online applications must be made before 30 September 2021 and the process is far from simple. This is an alert to self-employed traders that have not yet considered a claim and it sets out eligibility details and the information you will need to pull together to make a claim.

Who can make a claim?

We have reproduced below HMRC’s three stage process that you will need to clear in order to apply:

Stage 1: Your trading status and when you must have traded

You must be a self-employed individual or a member of a partnership. You must also have traded in both tax years 2019-20 and 202-21. You cannot claim the grant if you trade through a limited company or a trust.

Stage 2: Tax returns and trading profits

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 trading profits at least equal to your non-trading income.

Non-trading income is any money that you make outside of your business. For example, if you also have a part-time job or pension.

If you are not eligible based on the trading profits in your 2019-20 return, HMRC will look back at previous years. HMRC will already have contacted you if you are eligible for the grant based on your tax returns. 

Stage 3: Deciding if you can claim

When you make your claim, you must tell HMRC that you:

• 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.

How to make a claim

As with previous SEISS grants, you will need to make a claim for the fifth and final grant, to 30 September 2021, by completing an online application. However, for this application you will also need to supply turnover details for the tax year 2020-21 and either 2019-20 or 2018-29.

Turnover details will not be required if you started self-employment in 2019-20 and had not traded in any of the tax years 2018-19, 2017-18 or 2016-17. Turnover details are required as the fifth grant will be calculated on two levels.

1. If your turnover is reduced by 30% or more you will get 80% of three months average trading profits capped at £7,500.
2. If your turnover is down by less than 30% you will get 30% of three months average trading profits capped at £2,850.

Need help?

As you can see, the application process for the 5^th and final SEISS grant is far from straight-forward. If you need help to work through eligibility and your application, please call.