Applications for the second grant are now open. If you’re eligible and your business has been adversely affected on or after 14 July 2020, you must make your claim for the second grant on or before 19 October 2020.
How the grant works
If you receive the grant you can:
- continue to work
- start a new trade or take on other employment including voluntary work and duties as a military reservist.
The grant does not need to be repaid if you’re eligible, but will be subject to Income Tax and self-employed national insurance.
HMRC will work out if you’re eligible and how much grant you may get. But you can follow these steps to help you understand how they will do this and what you can do now.
Who can claim
You can claim a grant if you’re a self-employed individual or a member of a partnership and your business has been adversley affected due to COVID-19.
To make a claim for the second grant your business must have been affected on or after 14 July 2020.
All of the following must also apply:
- you traded in the tax year 2018 to 2019 and submitted your Self Assessment tax return on or before 23 April 2020 for that year
- you traded in the tax year 2019 to 2020
- you intend to continue to trade in the tax year 2020 to 2021
You cannot claim the grant if you trade through a limited company or a trust.
If you claim Maternity Allowance this will not affect your eligibility for the grant.
There are also a number of circumstances that can affect the scheme, these being;
- if your return is late, amended or under enquiry
- if you’re a member of a partnership
- if you had a new child
- if you have loans covered by the loan charge
- if you claim averaging relief
- if you’re a military reservist
- if you’re non-resident or chose the remittance basis
- state aid
You can check how these circustamnces and how they will affect your eligibity here
How much you’ll get
You’ll get a taxable grant based on your average trading profit over the 3 tax years:
- 2016 to 2017
- 2017 to 2018
- 2018 to 2019
HMRC will work out your average trading profit by adding together your total trading profits or losses for the 3 tax years, then we will divide by 3.
The second grant is worth 70% of your average monthly trading profits, paid out in a single instalment covering 3 months’ worth of profits, and capped at £6,570 in total.
How you can claim
The online service for the second grant is now available and you can access this here
To make your claim you will need to use the date HMRC has given you.
We are here to help
If you need to ask our expert team a question on any of the above please call us on 0330 2233660 we will be happy to assist. We will ensure we keep you updated as and when other annoucements are made.