Coronavirus Self-Employed Income Support Scheme

The chancellor has announced today a new scheme that will be available to support Self Employed businesses affected by the Coronavirus

The scheme will pay taxable grant payments to anyone who:

Submitted a tax return with self employed income for the 2018-19 tax year and is still trading
On this return self employment was their main source of income
Made taxable profits of less than £50,000

What You Will Get:

The grant will consist of self employed people being paid 80% of the monthly average of their self employed profits over the last 3 years (2016-2019).
Individuals receiving the grant will not have to pay it back, but will have to pay tax on the income as per usual rules.
Everyone will be entitled to at least 3 months of this average profit
Mr Sunak mentioned that self employed people could still be trading to receive the money. This may need to be confirmed.
If individuals were not trading for the full 3 years, the period that they were trading will be used to work out the payment.

The bad news:

If you were not self-employed before 6th April 2019, you will not be eligible to claim on the scheme
If you earned profit of over £50,000 you will not be eligible.
Payments will not be available until at least June, although at this point the whole 3 months will be paid at once.

What process will there be to claim the money?

1The HMRC will contact people that are eligible
2They will ask you to fill in a short online form to claim. If you have an accountant you may need their help.
3They will then process the claim and pay the money directly into your bank account.
4This money will not be paid until June 2020.

The chancellor stated that any businesses struggling to wait until June for the payment could access the interest free business loans, or Universal Credit in the short term.

Further information regarding this and all other support available is on a new Business Support website – see below link. If anyone would like any advice please let us know and we would be happy to help.

https://www.businesssupport.gov.uk/