The hugely successful Self-Employment Income Support Scheme is being extended into 2021; however the scope narrows to bring it in line with the Job Support Scheme, so the third and fourth grants are less generous ...
- Be eligible for the previous SEISS grants, although not necessary have claimed either
- Be trading at the time the grant is claimed
- Have the intention to continue trading
- Be impacted by reduced demand due to the pandemic during the qualifying period
The third grant will run from 1st November to whatever date HMRC allows individuals to claim. The fourth grant will run from 1st February to the date for that claim. The terms 'actively trading' and 'impacted by reduced demand' are additional eligibility criteria, and HMRC will publish more guidance on this as clarification before it opens the claim portal.
This decision was made to bring SEISS in line with the Job Support Scheme in only supporting viable jobs where people are working at least a third of their usual hours. This new 'impacted by reduced demand' criteria is far narrower than the previous 'adversely affected' and far fewer self-employed people are going to fall into that category.
The third and fourth SEISS grants will be based on the exact same tax years as before, so anyone who only filed a 2019/20 self-assessment tax return will not be considered for the scheme!
The amount of the third grant will be a taxable sum of 20% of average monthly trading profits and will be paid out in a lump sum. This will be capped at £1,875, which offers broadly the same amount of support that is being given to employees via the Job Support Scheme.
I'll bring you more information on the third and fourth SEISS grants as HMRC make it available.
If you feel inspired to find out more about anything I've said here, do call me on 01908 774320 or leave a comment below and I'll be in touch as soon as I can.