Covid 19 – Key Points for the Self Employed Grant

Agents are NOT allowed to complete the claim on your behalf. Although they can talk you through it online. HMRC will calculate whether you qualify for the self employed grant based on the submitted tax returns after 23rd April (the date by which all late 2018/19 tax returns need to be submitted by in order to be eligible for the grant). They will then invite you to make a claim.

HMRC will contact eligible individuals mid-May with a view to paying the grant early June. If you are contacted beforehand for your details then it is likely to be a scam!

The grant is payable for a 3 month period.

You need to confirm that your business has been adversely affected by Coronavirus to qualify.
You DO NOT need to stop work in your self employed business completely to qualify.

If your 2018/19 self employed profit AND your average profit for the 3 year ended 5th April 2019 exceed £50,000 then you will not be eligible for the grant.

If your 2018/19 self employed profit AND your average profit for the last 3 years is less than 50% of your total income then you will not be eligible for the grant.

A loss counts as negative profit rather than NIL.
Any amendments to previously submitted 18/19 tax returns won’t be considered so it isn’t worth trying to increase profits to increase the grant!

A few further key points to note on Covid-19 support:

The self employed grant, furlough pay and £10k and £25k grants are all taxable income.
To take advantage of the VAT payment deferral you need to ensure you cancel your direct debit ASAP.
You then have until 5th April 2021 to pay this VAT.
You do not need to apply for the VAT deferral or the July 2020 self employed payment on account deferral. The July payment needs to be paid before 31st January 2021.
There is also a specialist time to pay helpline for any business struggling to pay any other tax due to Covid-19.