August 4th, 2021
Covid-19: Fifth and Final Self-Employment Income Support Scheme Grant
The portal to apply for the fifth grant is now open. Invites to the portal for the fifth and final Self-Employment Income support Scheme (SEISS) grant are in the process of being sent out.
In the event that you’re eligible, HMRC will get in touch in order to provide you with your own independent claim date. From this point your portal will open for you to process your claim.
The Fifth grant is different from the last four grants as there are two levels of grant available. How much you will receive depends on the extent to which your business has been hit by Covid -19.
You can claim the fifth grant if you think that your business profit has been impacted by coronavirus (COVID-19) between 1 May 2021 and 30 September 2021, and you meet the eligibility criteria.
The deadline to make the claim is 30 September.
Eligibility criteria
To be eligible for the fifth grant, there are several considerations that must be met. These include:
- You must carry on a trade which has been adversely affected by coronavirus.
- You must have submitted your 2019/20 tax return on or before 2 March 2021.
- You must have carried on a trade in 2019/20 and 2020/21.
- You must intend to continue to carry on a trade in 2021/22 at the time you claim the grant.
- Your trade must have suffered reduced activity, capacity or demand in the period 1 May 2021 to 30 September 2021.
- At the time that you make the claim, you must reasonably believe that you will suffer a significant reduction in trading profits compared to what you would have typically expected had you not suffered the reduction in activity, capacity or demand.
Applicants will need to consider their wider business circumstances when deciding whether the reduction is significant. New guidance on how trading conditions affect eligibility can be found here.
The grant does not need to be repaid if the applicant is eligible, but, as with the previous grants, it will be subject to income tax and National Insurance, and will need to be declared on the 2021-22 tax return.
Evidence must be retained to support claims made.
What do you need to make a claim?
To make the claim you will need to have 2 different turnover figures.
You need to work out your turnover figure for:
- April 2020 to April 2021
- Either 2019-2020 or 2018-2019
HMRC will then compare these figures and determine how much grant you will obtain.
Details on how to calculate your turnover for the grant claim can be found here by HMRC.
What eligible applicants will get
The fifth grant is calculated using either 30% or 80% of an average of three months’ trading profits. The following is how the appropriate rate is applied:
- If your turnover was down by less than 30% in 2020/21, you will receive a grant worth 30% of three months average profits. (Capped at £2,850)
- If your turnover was down by 30% or more in 2020/21, then you will receive a grant equal to 80% of three months average profits. (Capped at £7,500)
Making a claim
HMRC will be contacting all self-employed people in the UK that may be eligible to inform them of the fifth grant and provide them with an effective claim date from which the portal will be available.
You can check here if you are able to make a claim.
As with the first four claims, those who are eligible and need to make a claim must do this themselves using their Government Gateway account – accountants and agents are not permitted to make claims on behalf of their clients, as this may trigger a fraud alert that will delay payment.
Applicants can keep working if they make a claim, although they would need to declare that their business has been impacted for the period they are claiming for. HMRC will check for fraudulent claims.
