The fifth Self-Employment Income Support Scheme

HMRC have now issued guidance on the (hopefully) fifth and final version of the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme. The online service to claim the fifth grant will be available from late July 2021. A claim must be made on or before 30 September 2021.

A claim can be made if business profit will be impacted by coronavirus between 1 May 2021 and 30 September 2021 and:

• traded in both 2019/20 and 2020/21
• submitted the 2019/20 return on or before 2 March 2021
• have trading profits of no more than £50,000 and trading profits at least equal to non-trading income. If there is no eligibility based on the trading profits for 2019/20, then previous years will be considered.

In addition, a business must state that it:

• intends to keep trading in 2021/22; and
• reasonably believe there will be a significant reduction in trading profits due to the impact of coronavirus between 1 May 2021 and 30 September 2021.

In addition, the fifth grant is different from previous grants as details of business turnover have to be provided to HMRC for them to work out the grant amount. Turnover includes takings, fees, sales or money earned or received by the business. Two different turnover figures will be required for most businesses, namely turnover for:

• a 12-month period starting between 1 April 2020 and 6 April 2020; and
• either 2019/20 or 2018/19.

HMRC will then work out the grant amount based on how much turnover is down by after they have compared the two turnover figures.

If turnover is down by 30% or more the grant will be 80% of three months’ average trading profits, capped at £7,500

If turnover is down less than 30% the grant will be 30% of three months’ average trading profits, capped at £2,850.