Self Employment Income Support (SEISS) Should I take the grant?

homeless9

Hi,

I am eligible for this scheme. Though it says 'Only claim if your business has been adversely affected by Coronavirus'. For me this is impossible to determine. I am still trading online as normal. Whether or not my sales have been affected or not, I am not sure. I have been unable to buy some stock due to lockdown and the postal service seems to be losing more post during this time, or having long delays which are leading me to have to refund a lot of buyers. At the end of the day it's impossible to say as a whole as to whether the virus is damaging my profits compared to what they'd be if the virus never happened.

I expect the grant I will get will only be approx £1200. Financially I am doing ok as I am also employed and still have self-employed income coming in.

Should I feel guilty taking the £1200.....is it morally wrong when I am doing ok? Does anyone know if HMRC will be doing checks to see if people's businesses have been adversely affected....and if so, how? it's hard to quantify, so I assume they won't be doing this.

I do still worry what the future brings. I'll definitely be adversely affected by the virus in the future if taxes go up. Rishi Sunak has pretty much stated that because of these SEISS grants he is seriously considering putting Self Employed taxes up. So ironically this scheme will adversely affect me in the long run, so I might as well benefit from it now and take the £1200 if either way it's is going to shaft me later.

calcotti

homeless9 said:Y Does anyone know if HMRC will be doing checks to see if people's businesses have been adversely affected....and if so, how? it's hard to quantify, so I assume they won't be doing this.

We don’t know.

homeless9 said:. I'll definitely be adversely affected by the virus in the future if taxes go up. Rishi Sunak has pretty much stated that because of these SEISS grants he is seriously considering putting Self Employed taxes up. So ironically this scheme will adversely affect me in the long run, so I might as well benefit from it now and take the £1200 if either way it's is going to shaft me later.

The test is whether your business has been affected not whether you might be affected in the future.

Jeremy535897

From what you say, your business has been adversely affected because you cannot buy all the stock you want, the postal service you rely on has got worse, and you are issuing more refunds. Coronavirus seems to be the obvious cause. We do not know how HMRC will audit claims on the issue of being affected by coronavirus.

ffc58

Well i have heard and i know a lot of companies are abusing the furlough scheme.
Not sure if they will be investigated  

sharpe106

ffc58 said:

Well i have heard and i know a lot of companies are abusing the furlough scheme.
Not sure if they will be investigated  

If this was any other government scheme then a lot of what people have claimed for would never have been allowed. But with the way ministers have been selling it HMRC would have a hard time policing it.