Self employment grant 5/maternity

SC158

I understand the 5th self employment grant is for May to September. I worked through May, but gave birth on 5th June (3weeks early). I'm eligible for the 5th grant but dont know if/how I can claim for just May, because after that its maternity leave. 

Jeremy535897

You would have to show that your trading profits for 2021/22 were significantly reduced by the impact coronavirus had on your profits from 1 May 2021 to when you stopped, as well as meeting all the other conditions. You can't claim for just May.

SC158

Jeremy535897 said:

You would have to show that your trading profits for 2021/22 were significantly reduced by the impact coronavirus had on your profits from 1 May 2021 to when you stopped, as well as meeting all the other conditions. You can't claim for just May.

I stopped on 3rd June as went into labour on 4th. I have been impacted by CV19, only 1 out of 4 client projects are going ahead at the moment due to CV19. If I didnt have maternity leave I would be eligible for the full 5th grant.

Jeremy535897

The guidance says:

"1.3 Deciding if you can claim

You must declare that:

• you intend to continue to trade
• you reasonably believe there will be a significant reduction in your trading profits due to reduced business activity, capacity, demand or inability to trade due to coronavirus from May 2021 to September 2021

You must keep evidence that shows how your business has been impacted by coronavirus resulting in less business activity than otherwise expected.

HMRC expects you to make an honest assessment about whether you reasonably believe your business will have a significant reduction in profits."

Your trading profits will not reduce at all because of coronavirus from 3 June to 30 September. Therefore all you can do is look at 1 May to 2 June and decide whether, for one month out of 12, the loss of 3 contracts out of 4 is significant in terms of your trading profits for 2021/22. To put that in context, if your business was even over the year, and the contracts were equal, you are losing 75% of one twelfth of your annual profits due to coronavirus (about 6%).