SEISS 2 eligibility question - takings down but no proof in business records

dsheld

Hello All,

I am a self employed share fisherman who gets paid a share of the gross sales of fish that my boat makes. As a direct result of the Coronavirus pandemic after July 14th my boat was unable to sell a particular fish (velvet crabs) due to a diminished market and also due to reduced personnel at the fish processor that processes our catch. However my financial records show a single figure for my weekly takings and that figure is not broken down by fish species. So, although my takings have definitely been less than they otherwise would have been had the Coronavirus crisis not happened, I cannot prove it from my financial records.

Would you have any advice for me? It is also the case that my overall takings this year are about the same or if not higher than my takings during this time last year.

I appreciate your help and advice.

Jeremy535897

All that we have from HMRC is here:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/decide-if-your-business-has-been-adversely-affected-for-the-self-employment-income-support-scheme  By necessity, the examples are somewhat crude.

I suggest you prepare a document that you print off, explaining the points you have made in as much detail as possible. There is some contradiction in what you say, as follows:
"So, although my takings have definitely been less than they otherwise would have been had the Coronavirus crisis not happened"
"It is also the case that my overall takings this year are about the same or if not higher than my takings during this time last year."
It may be that you are saying that there are reasons why your turnover should have increased, but coronavirus stopped that increase. That is the sort of thing to explain.

I very much doubt that HMRC are going to be comparing turnover or profit of millions of businesses from one year to the next. There could be all sorts of reasons why your turnover goes up but your business has still been adversely affected by coronavirus. You might simply have taken a long holiday the previous year. HMRC operate a risk based approach to investigations. They won't devote resources to cases where there is little likelihood of success.

dsheld

Jeremy535897 said:

There is some contradiction in what you say, as follows:
"So, although my takings have definitely been less than they otherwise would have been had the Coronavirus crisis not happened"
"It is also the case that my overall takings this year are about the same or if not higher than my takings during this time last year."
It may be that you are saying that there are reasons why your turnover should have increased, but coronavirus stopped that increase. That is the sort of thing to explain.

Hi Jeremy thanks for your reply. Regarding your comment implying that my post contains some contradiction, allow me to clarify: my income is down due to Coronavirus  (I estimate by about £100-£200 per week), nevertheless it is about the same per week as last year and some weeks it is higher than it was last year. i.e. my income would have consistently been at least £100-£200 per week higher than it was last year were it not for Coronavirus.

Thanks for your suggestion of printing off a document containing a full explanation of those circumstances.

Jeremy535897

As I have said on another post, there is no magic test that says "your turnover must be lower than last year for this period". What if you were on holiday for 2 months in that period last year? If your reasoning is sound, you should pass the test of "adversely affected".

justwhat

Who bought the velvet crabs?
turnover is irrelevant, you could have landed an extra 2 ton of prawns(per day lol ) and made a mint. You were still adversely effected because you velvet crab purchaser was not buying due to covid.