Self-employed COVID-19 support
If you are self-employed and qualify for the Self-employment Income Support Scheme you will receive a cash grant from HMRC based on 80% of profits, capped at £2,500 per month. The initial grant will be for the three months, from 1 March through to the end of May 2020, but could be extended for a longer period. The grants are expected to be paid out at the beginning of June.
You can apply if you are a self-employed individual or a member of a partnership and you:
- have submitted your Income Tax Self-Assessment tax return for the tax year 2018-19
- traded in the tax year 2019-20
- are trading when you apply, or would be except for COVID-19
- intend to continue to trade in the tax year 2020-21
- have lost trading/partnership trading profits due to COVID-19
Your self-employed trading profits must also be less than £50,000 and more than half of your income from self-employment. This is determined by at least one of the following conditions being true:
- having trading profits/partnership trading profits in 2018-19 of less than £50,000 and these profits constitute more than half of your total taxable income
- having average trading profits in 2016-17, 2017-18, and 2018-19 of less than £50,000 and these profits constitute more than half of your average taxable income in the same period
There is no need to apply as HMRC will use data on 2018-19 returns already submitted to identify those eligible and will risk assess any late returns filed before the 23 April 2020 deadline in the usual way. If you are eligible, you will be invited to apply.
