Update on the COVID-19 Self-employment Income Support Scheme

The Government has published an update on how self-employed people can claim COVID-19 support grants.

The online service use to make the claim is not available yet. HMRC will aim to contact you by mid-May, and will make payments by early June.

You can read the full guidance on claiming a grant through the COVID-19 Self-employment Income Support Scheme here

The scheme will allow you to claim a taxable grant worth 80% of your trading profits up to a maximum of £2,500 a month. It will be available for three months, but may be extended.

The grant will be subject to Income Tax and National Insurance contributions but does not need to be repaid.

You can claim if you’re a self-employed individual or a member of a partnership and you:

• have submitted your Self Assessment tax return for the tax year 2018 to 2019
• traded in the tax year 2019 to 2020
• are trading when you apply, or would be except for coronavirus
• intend to continue to trade in the tax year 2020 to 2021
• have lost trading profits due to coronavirus

You will need to confirm to HMRC that your business has been adversely affected by coronavirus.

Your trading profits must also be no more than £50,000 and more than half of your total income for either:

• the tax year 2018 to 2019
• the average of the tax years 2016 to 2017, 2017 to 2018, and 2018 to 2019.