SEISS & Local Authority Grants - Taxable ?

sjw11

A friend of mine has a small shop that was prevented from operating during various lockdowns, and consequently received both SEISS and Local Authority "Grants".
Quite how he manages a shop and got those grants I don't know as his command of simple bookkeeping and his ability to find information online is sketchy to say the least. I even had to talk him through reading his bank statement online beyond the initial display.
The main issue is that he is now panicking that he will have to pay tax on all he has received.
Please can anyone confirm or deny this, as his accountant seems unsure too.

Jeremy535897

Both SEISS and local authority grants are treated as trading profits subject to tax and class 4 NIC in the normal way, although they need to be declared in different places on form SA103.

If his accountant doesn't know the answer to that, he needs a better accountant.

Grumpy_chap

Jeremy is correct.
Remember, though, the grants only become trading profits after the deduction of allowable expenses.