If you’re eligible based on your tax returns, HMRC will contact you in mid-July to give you a date that you can make your claim from. It will be given to you either by email, text message, letter or within the online service.
The online service to claim the fifth grant will be available from late July 2021.
You’ll need to confirm that you meet other eligibility criteria when you make your claim.
You must make your claim on or before 30 September 2021.
Claim the fifth grant if you think that your business profit will be impacted by coronavirus (COVID-19) between 1 May 2021 and 30 September 2021.
Find out if you’re able to claim for a SEISS grant by checking that you meet all criteria in stages 1, 2 and 3.
You must be a self-employed individual or a member of a partnership. You must also have traded in both tax years:
You cannot claim the grant if you trade through a limited company or a trust.
You must have:
Non-trading income is any money that you make outside of your business. For example, if you also have a part-time job or pension.
If you’re not eligible based on the trading profits in your 2019 to 2020 return, we’ll look back at previous years.
HMRC will contact you in mid-July if you’re eligible for the grant based on your tax returns.
Find out more about how HMRC works out trading profits and non-trading income.
When you make your claim you must tell us that you:
If you think your business has been impacted by COVID-19, find out how to decide if you can make a claim.
There are some circumstances that you should take into account, such as:
If you claim Maternity Allowance this will not affect your eligibility for the grant.
Find out more information on how your circumstances affect your eligibility.
The fifth grant is different from previous grants. In most cases, when making your claim you’ll need to tell us about your business turnover so we can work out your grant amount.
Turnover includes the takings, fees, sales or money earned or received by your business.
To make your claim, you’ll need to have 2 different turnover figures. You’ll need to work out your turnover for:
We’ll compare these figures to work out how much you’ll get.
Find out how to work out your turnover so you can claim the grant.
We will not ask you for any turnover figures if you started trading in 2019 to 2020 and did not trade in the following tax years:
There are 2 levels of grant. HMRC will work out your grant amount based on how much your turnover is down by after we’ve compared your 2 turnover figures.
| If your turnover is down by | You’ll get | Maximum grant amount |
|---|---|---|
| 30% or more | 80% of 3 months’ average trading profits | £7,500 |
| less than 30% | 30% of 3 months’ average trading profits | £2,850 |
This is an example of how we’ll work out your grant if your average trading profits were £42,000 over the last 4 tax years.
If you’re eligible for the higher grant:
If you’re eligible for the lower grant:
You’ll get 80% of 3 months’ average trading profits. The maximum grant amount is £7,500.
Find out more information on how HMRC work out your trading profits.
The online service for the fifth grant will be available from late July 2021.
HMRC will contact you in mid-July to give you a date that you can make your claim from. It will be given to you either by email, text message, letter or within the online service.
You can check a list of genuine HMRC contacts if you receive any suspicious texts, calls or emails claiming to be from HMRC as this may be a scam.
The grant is subject to Income Tax and self-employed National Insurance Contributions. It must be reported on your 2021 to 2022 Self Assessment tax return.
The grant also counts towards your annual allowance for pension contributions. SEISS grants are not counted as ‘access to public funds’ and you can claim the grant on all categories of work visa.
Our friendly and helpful approach to accountancy, ensures that you understand and are in tune with your finances. Our committed team will communicate with you every step of the way so that you understand the position of your financial affairs – get in touch today.
