Self-employed workers - Covid-19 support
The scheme to help self-employed workers who have been hit by the COVID-19 crisis has finally been announced
This scheme will allow you to claim a taxable grant worth 80% of your trading profits up to a maximum of £2,500 per month for 3 months March - May. This may be extended if needed. The taxable cash grant will be in the form of a single lump sum to cover the three months. It will be paid in June 2020 to those that are eligible directly into their bank account.
To be eligible self-employed workers must have filed a tax return for the 2018/19 tax year and have average trading profits under £50,000 for the past three years and more than 50% of their income stems from self-employment
You can apply if you’re a self-employed individual or a member of a partnership and you:
- have submitted your Income Tax Self Assessment tax return for the tax year 2018-19
- traded in the tax year 2019-20
- are trading when you apply, or would be except for COVID-19
- intend to continue to trade in the tax year 2020-21
- have lost trading/partnership trading profits due to COVID-19
Worth noting that HMRC’s guidance does state that the 18/19 tax return must be filed by 23 April 2020 in order to eligible! For those that have yet to file their 18/19 tax return, it represents something of an opportunity.
In the meantime, the Chancellor said people can access Universal Credit, business loans or keep on working.
HMRC will contact self-employed workers if eligible for the scheme and invite them to apply online. Fuller details are here
Directors of their own companies who are paid through PAYE may be able to get support using the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. However, in our assessment at this moment, this scheme is fairly strict about not being able to work whilst on this scheme so this may exclude directors who are trying to get work from being included. So far we are unable to gain clarity for those who are Directors and take a small wage and dividends
