The government has announced that the self-employed will receive another grant to cover June, July and August if their business has been affected by coronavirus. Are your clients eligible and how can you help them?
Who can get the grant?
Self-employed individuals or members of a partnership are eligible for a grant representing up to 70% of their average profits if they meet the following criteria:
- they submitted a tax return for 2018/19
- their business traded during 2019/20
- their business is continuing to trade, or would be except for coronavirus
- they intend to continue trading in 2020/21
- they have lost trading/partnership trading profits due to coronavirus
- their trading profits were less than £50,000 and represented more than half of their total taxable income.
How much will they be paid?
Individuals will get a taxable grant which will be 70% of the average profits from the tax years 2016/17 to 2018/19. If they became self-employed during those years, HMRC will use the average for the years they submitted tax returns for. The maximum amount is £2,250 per month for three months, so to get the full amount your client would need to have average profits of £38,570 per annum. Applications for this second and final grant will open in August.
Can clients apply if they haven’t claimed the first grant?
Absolutely, individuals can continue to apply for the first grant until 13 July 2020. They don’t need to have claimed the first grant to receive the second grant, for example, if their business has only recently been affected by coronavirus.
If your clients were eligible for the first grant, HMRC should have contacted them already. You can check their eligibility here.
This article has been reproduced by kind permission of Indicator – FL Memo Ltd. For details of their tax-saving products please visit www.indicator-flm.co.uk or call 01233 653500.