The 5th SEISS grant can be claimed online from late July 2021.
If you’re eligible based on your tax returns, HMRC will contact you in mid-July to give you a date that you can make your claim from. It will be given to you either by email, text message, letter or within the online service.
You’ll need to confirm that you meet other eligibility criteria when you make your claim.
You must make your claim on or before 30 September 2021.
Claim the fifth grant if you think that your business profit will be impacted by coronavirus (COVID-19) between 1 May 2021 and 30 September 2021.
Can I claim?
To claim you must meet all of the below criteria:
- You must be a self-employed individual or a member of a partnership.
- You must also have traded in both tax years 2019 to 2020 and 2020 to 2021
- You cannot claim the grant if you trade through a limited company or a trust.
You must have:
- submitted your 2019 to 2020 tax return on or before 2 March 2021
- trading profits of no more than £50,000
- trading profits at least equal to your non-trading income
Non-trading income is any money that you make outside of your business. For example, if you also have a part-time job, dividend income or a pension.
If you’re not eligible based on the trading profits in your 2019 to 2020 return, we’ll look back at previous years.
You must also confirm when you make the claim that you:
- intend to keep trading in 2021 to 2022
- 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
There are some circumstances that you should take into account, that may affect your eligibility, such as:
- your return is late, amended or under enquiry
- you’re a member of a partnership
- you had a new child
- you have loans covered by the loan charge provisions
- you claim averaging relief
- you’re a military reservist
- you are non-resident or chose the remittance basis
If you claim Maternity Allowance this will not affect your eligibility for the grant.
Is The 5th Grant Different?
Yes. In most cases, when making your claim you’ll need to tell the HMRC about your business turnover so they can work out your grant amount.
Turnover includes the takings, fees, sales or money earned or received by your business.
To make your claim, you’ll need to have 2 different turnover figures. You’ll need to work out your turnover for:
- April 2020 to April 2021
- either 2019 to 2020 or 2018 to 2019
We’ll compare these figures to work out how much you’ll get.
Does Everyone Need Turnover Figures to Claim?
We will not ask you for any turnover figures if you started trading in 2019 to 2020 and did not trade in the following tax years:
- 2018 to 2019
- 2017 to 2018
- 2016 to 2017
How much will I receive?
If you need to tell us about your turnover
There are 2 levels of grant. HMRC will work out your grant amount based on how much your turnover is down by after we’ve compared your 2 turnover figures.
| How much your turnover is down by | What you’ll get | Maximum grant amount |
| 30% or more | 80% of 3 months’ average trading profits | £7,500 |
| less than 30% | 30% of 3 months’ average trading profits | £2,850 |
If you do not need turnover figures to claim
You’ll get 80% of 3 months’ average trading profits. The maximum grant amount is £7,500.
How the grant is treated
The grant is subject to Income Tax and self-employed National Insurance Contributions. It must be reported on your 2021 to 2022 Self-Assessment tax return.
The grant also counts towards your annual allowance for pension contributions. SEISS grants are not counted as ‘access to public funds’ and you can claim the grant on all categories of work visa.
For further information visit the HMRC website here.