Seiss - which year for filing?

monaymadlol

HNY!

Starting to get my 19/20 figures together for self assessment this month. I'm a self employed sole trader. 

I claimed the first seiss back in May. 

How does this work in filing? Is it added on automatically when I log on? Is there a new section for it? Can you choose which filing/tax year it goes in?

I wanted to split it 50:50 between 19/20 and 20/21 given the lockdown started in one filing year and goes into the consecutive year also. Is this possible? 

My filing year is April to April. 

Many thanks 

Jeremy535897

Schedule 16 Finance Act 2020 makes it totally clear that SEISS is taxable in 2020/21, not 2019/20. See paragraph 3:
"(3)Where an amount of a coronavirus support payment made under the self-employment income support scheme is brought into account under paragraph 1(2), the whole of the amount is to be treated as a receipt of a revenue nature of the tax year 2020-21 (irrespective of its treatment for accounting purposes)."

HMRC say there will be a separate box to enter the figure in.

HHarry

The first payment was in May 2020, so it was never going to be possible to claim it in the 19/20 tax year.

Jeremy535897

HHarry said:

The first payment was in May 2020, so it was never going to be possible to claim it in the 19/20 tax year.

This is incorrect. Under accrual accounting principles, as the grant arguably related to the period 1 March to 31 May 2020, one third could have been brought into the 2019/20 accounts if they ended on 31 March 2020. However, the legislation overrides this, as I set out above, so SEISS is all taxable in 2020/21, whether you use accruals basis or cash basis, and whenever you received it. (The law may change if SEISS 4 is paid after 5 April 2021, but it hasn't yet.)

monaymadlol

Jeremy535897 said:

Schedule 16 Finance Act 2020 makes it totally clear that SEISS is taxable in 2020/21, not 2019/20. See paragraph 3:
"(3)Where an amount of a coronavirus support payment made under the self-employment income support scheme is brought into account under paragraph 1(2), the whole of the amount is to be treated as a receipt of a revenue nature of the tax year 2020-21 (irrespective of its treatment for accounting purposes)."

HMRC say there will be a separate box to enter the figure in.

Thank you. So is the Seiss figure taken into consideration with the 1st payment on account for 20/21, as it seems it won't be? 

Grumpy_chap

monaymadlol said:

is the Seiss figure taken into consideration with the 1st payment on account for 20/21? 

No, not directly.
However, the payment on account will be calculated on the assumption that 20/21 follows similar outcomes to 19/20, so if the SEISS compensated for loss of profits (as was intended) then the payment on account will still be in the correct ball-park.  Indeed, slightly over if work was zero while the SEISS was 80%. 

That is more complicated for SEISS as you may have still worked and therefore the SEISS is over-and-above past years profits, but still won't be taken into account in the payments on account.  If you are concerned that this could affect you, set 20% or 40% of the SEISS value aside to meet future tax bill.

monaymadlol

Yes I still worked, so I guess it will be a bit more. Thank you

Jeremy535897

2020/21 payments on account are based on 2019/20 results. You can reduce payments on account if they are going to collect too much.