Self Employed Income Support Scheme (“SEISS”) – Fifth & Final Grant

The online service for claiming the fifth SEISS grant will be available from late July 2021 and you must make your claim on or before 30 September 2021. As with previous grants under the scheme, the actual date for claiming will be staggered and if you were eligible for the fourth grant, you will also be eligible for the fifth grant. HMRC should contact you shortly by email, text message, letter or within the online service with the date that you can claim. In order to make a claim you must:

• ​Have traded in the 2019-20 tax year and submitted your 2020 Tax Return on or before 2 March 2021
• Have traded in the 2020-21 tax year
• Intend to keep trading in the the 2021-22 tax year
• 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 - see HMRC examples 
• Have trading profits of no more than £50,000
• Business profits must make up at least 50% of your total income

The fifth grant is different as the level of your grant will be determined by the reduction in your business turnover. To make your claim, you will need to provide HMRC with two turnover figures:

1. Turnover for a 12-month period starting on any date between 1 April 2020 and 6 April 2020 - please contact us if you need assistance calculating this figure
2. Turnover reported on your 2019-20 Tax Return if 2019-20 was not a normal year for your business, you can use the turnover reported on your 2018-19 Tax Return - again please contact us if you need assistance with finding this figure.

The online service will then compare your turnover figures and then confirm the level of the grant you can claim based on the following:

• If your turnover is down by 30% or more, your grant will be worked out at 80% of 3 months’ average trading profits as calculated in previous claims (capped at £7,500)
• If your turnover is down by less than 30%, your grant will be worked out at 30% of 3 months’ average trading profits as calculated in previous claims (capped at £2,850)

HMRC may ask you to provide evidence showing how your business has been impacted by Covid-19 in the period if you make a claim under the fifth grant.  Therefore it is important for you to keep details of issues encountered by the business in the period 1 May 2021 to 30 September 2021, whether this is difficulty obtaining materials, the inability to work due to periods of self isolation or anything else that impacted the business.

We are here to help so please contact us should you wish to discuss any of the above, or if you need any assistance in calculating the turnover figures required in order to make a claim.