COVID-19 Self-Employment Financial Support

As you know, the global economy is facing its toughest time yet with Covid-19 bringing about great uncertainty for all businesses and those who are self-employed. Various emergency measures have been and continue to be announced for the UK. We have put together a short guide to help with this situation. This will be updated regularly.

Self-employment Income Support Scheme
The government has set up a scheme for self-employed people whose incomes are being hurt by the coronavirus outbreak. It is called the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme.
The scheme isn’t open yet but HMRC aim to contact you by mid May 2020 and look to make payments in early June 2020.
The scheme will give grants to self-employed people to cover 80% of their usual profits up to a maximum of £2,500 per month over three months but may be extended. The grant will be subject to Income Tax and National Insurance contributions but does not need to be repaid.
Those eligible for the scheme will have to have submitted a self-assessment tax return for the April 2018-April 2019 financial year.
If you were already self-employed but haven’t submitted your self-assessment tax return yet, you have until 23 April to do so. If we can be of any help with submitting this for you or if you require any advice, please contact us
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Who can claim?
You can claim if you’re a self-employed individual or a member of a partnership and you:

• Have submitted your Self-Assessment tax return for the tax year 2018 to 2019
• Traded in the tax year 2019 to 2020
• Are trading when you apply, or would be if not for coronavirus
• Intend to continue to trade in the tax year 2020 to 2021
• Have lost trading profits due to coronavirus

You will need to confirm to HMRC that your business has been adversely affected by coronavirus. HMRC will, as usual, use a risk-based approach to compliance.

Your trading profits must also be no more than £50,000 and more than half of your total income for either:

• The tax year 2018 to 2019
• The average of the tax years 2016 to 2017, 2017 to 2018, and 2018 to 2019

You can make a claim for Universal Credit while you wait for the grant, but any grant received will be treated as part of your self-employment income and may affect the amount of Universal Credit you get. Any Universal Credit claims for earlier periods will not be affected.

If you receive the grant you can continue to work or take on other employment including voluntary work.