Are you eligible for the fourth Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) Grant?

The fourth SEISS grant, which covers the period 1 February 2021 to 30 April 2021, is due to be launched later this month. For those partners and self-employed individuals who are eligible for the grant then you can make your claim anytime from your personal claim date (which will be provided by HM Revenue & Customs later this month) and before 1 June 2021. HM Revenue & Customs have stated that any claims made before your personal claim date will not be processed.

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible for the fourth SEISS grant you must:-

• have submitted your 2019-20 tax return on or before 2 March 2021
• have trading profits that are no more than £50,000 and at least equal to your non-trading income, based on your 2019-20 tax return or an average of relevant tax years between 2016-17 and 2019-20.
• declare that you intend to continue to trade and are either:
  • currently trading but are impacted by reduced activity, capacity or demand due to coronavirus, or
  • have traded previously but are temporarily unable to do so due to coronavirus (If you have been abroad and have to stay in quarantine or self-isolate, this does not count)

Examples of what these terms mean can be found at www.gov.uk/guidance/how-your-trading-conditions-affect-your-eligibility-for-the-self-employment-income-support-scheme

• declare that you have a reasonable belief that there will be a significant reduction in your trading profits for the year which covers the period 1 February 2021 to 30 April 2021 due to reduced business activity, capacity, demand or inability to trade due to coronavirus.

HM Revenue & Customs guidance states that an honest assessment must be made and that evidence of how these conditions are met should be retained.

Amount of grant

Where you are eligible the fourth grant is calculated at 80% of 3 months’ of your average trading profits and is again taxable. The fourth grant will be paid as a single amount and is capped at £7,500.

Making a claim

We understand that, from mid-April, if HM Revenue & Customs believe you may be eligible to make a claim then they will contact you by either email, letter or SMS and they will confirm from what date you may make your claim. Before claiming you will still need to make sure that you satisfy all the eligibility criteria listed above. You should also be careful to make sure that any correspondence purporting to be from HM Revenue & Customs is genuine.

To make a claim you will again need your National Insurance number, Unique Tax Reference (UTR), the personal or business address where your bank account is registered to and your Government Gateway login. Where this is your first claim, perhaps because you were newly self-employed in the 2019/20 tax year, and you do not already have a Government Gateway then you will need to create one by searching “HMRC Services: sign in or register”.

As with the earlier SEISS grant claims we are not permitted to process the claims for you. However, if you require any help or assistance then please do contact the office.