SEISS - Average earnings?

rubble2

Jeremy535897 said:

I assume your self employed trading income for the 3 years 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19 is at least equal to your other taxable income for those 3 years? If not you won't be eligible.

Yes, thanks I have already confirmed my eligibility with HMRC

mcooke999

I've now spoken to an advisor on the phone at HMRC. To cut a long story short, he said it's a grey area and they (the advisors) don't have anything in their guidance notes which covers this. He said the notes are getting updated every day so might be more info by next week... So who knows.

He did agree with me though that it's a bit odd that for individuals who traded in 16/17, didnt trade at all in 17/18 but then traded again in 18/19 the calculation would ignore the 17/18 year... Whereas if you did trade in 17/18 but it was only £1 profit it would be included :-s

Jeremy535897

rubble2 said:

calcotti said:

rubble2 said:...once I qualify for SEISS the fact that 18/19 profit is less than 50% of earnings doesn't matter and all three tax year's profits will count towards SEISS grant - is that correct?

That is my understanding.

Thank you, looks like I am due more than I thought - happy days

Don't forget to divide the self employed trading profits for the three years by 36 to get the monthly average. I suspect people who think you exclude a year of profits will also think they divide by 24.

RascalRob

I'm a little confused! I have checked the HMRC online tool and it tells me I am not eligible. However, the wording on the guidance here and on HMRCs site would suggest I should be:
"For both these requirements, the Government says it will first check your 2018/19 tax return – if you met the requirements that year, you'll be eligible."
I submitted my 2018-19 tax return in August last year with a profit of less than £50,000 and with no other income. So, requirement met. However, I also traded in the previous tax years but with a loss on both as all profits were re-invested into the business to get it established. So, it would appear that once your 2018-19 tax return has been checked and eligibility confirmed, this does not necessarily mean you are eligible as losses from previous years could wipe profit from the most recent tax return. Which it did in my case.
Anyone else in this situation? Is this just a case of poor wording?

Jeremy535897

RascalRob said:

I'm a little confused! I have checked the HMRC online tool and it tells me I am not eligible. However, the wording on the guidance here and on HMRCs site would suggest I should be:
"For both these requirements, the Government says it will first check your 2018/19 tax return – if you met the requirements that year, you'll be eligible."
I submitted my 2018-19 tax return in August last year with a profit of less than £50,000 and with no other income. So, requirement met. However, I also traded in the previous tax years but with a loss on both as all profits were re-invested into the business to get it established. So, it would appear that once your 2018-19 tax return has been checked and eligibility confirmed, this does not necessarily mean you are eligible as losses from previous years could wipe profit from the most recent tax return. Which it did in my case.
Anyone else in this situation? Is this just a case of poor wording?

If your losses exceeded your profits, you are not eligible because your average income over the three years will be negative.