COVID-19 and the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme Fifth Grant

HMRC have now confirmed that the fifth SEISS grant will be available from late July 2021. The fifth grant will be taxable, paid in a single instalment and will cover May 2021 to September 2021.   

Are you eligible for the SEISS Fifth Grant?  

In order to be eligible for the fifth SEISS grant, self-employed individuals (including members of partnerships) must: 

• Have submitted their 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 their non-trading income, based on their 2019-20 tax return or an average of relevant tax years between 2016-17 and 2019-20 
• Declare that they 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 they’ve been abroad and have to stay in quarantine or self-isolate, this does not count) 
• Declare that they have a reasonable belief that there will be a significant reduction in their trading profits due to reduced business activity, capacity, demand or inability to trade due to coronavirus.

What makes the Fifth Grant different? 

The amount of the fifth grant will be determined by how much your turnover has been reduced in the year April 2020 to April 2021.  

HMRC will publish guidance on how to work out how your turnover has been affected at the end of June 2021. 

Preparation for the Fifth Grant

The online claims service for the fifth grant will be available from late July 2021. If you are eligible, HMRC will contact you in mid-July 2021 to provide you with a date that you can make your claim from.   

If this is your first time claiming a SEISS grant, you may be asked some additional questions to prove your identity, which if you do not have ready when making your claim could cause delays. 

Questions could relate to any of the following:  

•           your UK passport
•           information held on your credit file (such as loans, credit cards or mortgages)
•           your Self-Assessment tax return (within the last three years)
•           your tax credit claim
•           your P60
•           one of your three most recent payslips.

If you have claimed before, you will need to log in to your Government Gateway account with your User ID and password. If you do not have a Government Gateway account (for example, those who are newly self-employed), you can create one now to avoid delaying your claim. 

To confirm your eligibility and make your claim, you will need your:  

1. National Insurance number 
2. Self-Assessment Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) number 
3. Government Gateway user ID and password 
4. Bank account number and sort code 

HMRC will also ask for the address that your bank or building society account is registered to.  

Repayment of SEISS Grant

You can make voluntary repayments to HMRC if you feel that you have received too much. Details on how to repay some or all of the grants can be accessed here (link Gov.uk).  

If you voluntarily pay back some of the grant, you will only be liable to income tax and Class 4 NIC on the net amount you keep. Therefore, we recommend you keep a record of any amounts you repay as you will be required to include this information in your self-assessment tax return. 

SEISS in Self-Assessment Tax Returns

We should remind you that you must include any SEISS grant payments you have received (minus any amounts repaid to HMRC) in your 2020-21 and 2021-22 Tax Returns. 

The first, second and third grant should be reported in your 2020-21 Tax Return with tax payable by 31 January 2022. The fourth and fifth grant should be reported in your 2021-22 Tax Return and tax payable by 31 January 2023.  

If you need any assistance or have any questions, please feel free to get in touch with Gillian Rushton, Jill Walker or your usual Anderson Anderson & Brown contact.