Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS)

Date:4 May 2020

Category:

Who can claim?

You can claim if you’re a self-employed individual or a member of a partnership and:

you carry on a trade which has been adversely affected by Coronavirus
you traded in the tax year 2018 to 2019 and submitted your Self Assessment tax return on or before 23 April 2020 for that year
you traded in the tax year 2019 to 2020
you intend to continue to trade in the tax year 2020 to 2021

How different circumstances affect the scheme:

Check if your circumstances affect your eligibility, for the following:

if your return is late, amended or under enquiry
if you’re a member of a partnership
if you’re on or took parental leave
if you have loans covered by the loan charge
if you claim averaging relief
if you’re non-resident or chose the remittance basis
if you’re above the state aid limits

How to claim

The online service will be available from 13 May 2020. If you’re eligible, HMRC will tell you the date you can make your claim from. If your claim is approved you’ll receive your payment within 6 working days.

When you make your claim

You’ll only need your:

Self Assessment UTR – if you do not have this please contact the office
National Insurance number – if you do not have this please contact the office
Government Gateway user ID and password – if you do not have a user ID, you can create one when you check your eligibility online
bank account number and sort code you want us to pay the grant into (only provide bank account details where a Bacs payment can be accepted)

After you’ve claimed

Once you’ve submitted your claim, you will be told straight away if your grant is approved. We will pay the grant into your bank account within 6 working days.

You must keep a copy of all records in line with normal self-employment record keeping requirements, including:

the amount claimed
the claim reference number for your records
evidence that your business has been adversely affected by Coronavirus

You will need to report the grant:

on your Self Assessment tax return
as self-employed income for any Universal Credit claims
as self-employed income and that you’re working 16 hours a week for any tax credits claims

Please note that we are unable to make claim on your behalf, you must make your own application.

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