SEISS Help/Advice needed!

JohnEdwards123

Hi all,
With regards the govt. SEISS (self employed income support scheme), obviously this isn't due to be run out till early June at the earliest (apparently).  My question is what would the impact of working between now and then be for me? I am a self employed (sub contractor) carpenter and joiner. I work mainly for larger firms. The industry seems to be split down the middle currently regarding covid 19 and site shutdowns in England. Nicola Sturgeon has had a more direct approach for the Scots! Say I picked up some work soon, how would it impact the figure otherwise calculated for my loss of earnings thus far? I can't make it to June on the figure currently due to get from DWP (£317.82 P/M).  Sometimes my fuel bill per week is somewhere near the £200 mark! I live and work in the south west.
TIA

kremlinbot

I'm in a similar position though my work has dried up 100% - I have checked this on the phone with the gov as I was thinking of trying to get a temp job, and to the best of the guy on the phone's knowledge - you can continue to work, and If your self-employed business is still 'affected' then it shouldn't affect your access to the scheme, so maybe you would have to show that your income was less than normal for the period. However I suppose the scheme is subject to change as things go on and I don't think there's anything stopping them altering the rules.

whizzywoo

Self employed can continue to work and apply for the SEISS grant. The amount you can receive is based on an average of trading income during the 3 years ended 5th April 2019, as shown on your Self assessment tax returns.

Jeremy535897

Entitlement to SEISS requires, amongst other things, that you are trading as self employed when you make your claim, or would be but for COVID 19, and that you intend to continue to trade in 2020/21. If you do self employed work, you will meet these criteria. If you get a job because you have no self employed work due to COVID 19, so long as you intend to continue to trade, you will meet them. The full eligibility criteria are as follows:

"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

Your self-employed trading profits must also be less than £50,000 and more than half of your income come from self-employment. This is determined by at least one of the following conditions being true:

• having trading profits/partnership trading profits in 2018-19 of less than £50,000 and these profits constitute more than half of your total taxable income
• having average trading profits in 2016-17, 2017-18, and 2018-19 of less than £50,000 and these profits constitute more than half of your average taxable income in the same period

If you started trading between 2016-19, HMRC will only use those years for which you filed a Self-Assessment tax return."

ffc58

Jeremy535897 said:

Entitlement to SEISS requires, amongst other things, that you are trading as self employed when you make your claim, or would be but for COVID 19, and that you intend to continue to trade in 2020/21. If you do self employed work, you will meet these criteria. If you get a job because you have no self employed work due to COVID 19, so long as you intend to continue to trade, you will meet them. The full eligibility criteria are as follows:

"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

Your self-employed trading profits must also be less than £50,000 and more than half of your income come from self-employment. This is determined by at least one of the following conditions being true:

• having trading profits/partnership trading profits in 2018-19 of less than £50,000 and these profits constitute more than half of your total taxable income
• having average trading profits in 2016-17, 2017-18, and 2018-19 of less than £50,000 and these profits constitute more than half of your average taxable income in the same period

If you started trading between 2016-19, HMRC will only use those years for which you filed a Self-Assessment tax return."

Presuming that if you have split earnings self employed and PAYE.
And say you have 70% for SE and 30% PAYE  based on the 3 tax returns .
The grant will only consist of  80% of  70% SE earnings..

Jeremy535897

That is correct. But earnings in 2019/20 and 2020/21 will not affect the amount of grant paid, because that  is based on the three years to 5 April 2019.