Self Employed Grant Extension 

• Chancellor Rishi Sunak last week announced further economic support for workers and self-employed people over the next few months of the coronavirus pandemic
• One of the measures being extended is the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS), which will be in place until April 2021
• Self assessed income taxpayers who need extra help can also extend their outstanding tax bill over 12 months from next January

Third phase of support

 The SEISS is being extended to provide up to two additional taxable grants to the self­ employed who have been negatively affected by the pandemic.

The first grant will cover the period November 1, 2020 to January 31, 2021. The grant will be based upon 20% of average monthly trading profits for the 3 month period and will be  capped at £1,875.

The second grant of the extended scheme will cover the period February 1 to April 30, 2021.

Details are yet to be released as to how this will be calculated.

SEISS Eligibility

Applications are not yet open for the SEISS extension, with HMRC to provide updated details about how to apply for the next SEISS grant under the extension in due course.

To be eligible for the extension to the scheme, however, self-employed individuals must meet the following criteria:

• Currently be eligible for the SEISS (although they do not have to have claimed the previous grants)
• Declare that they are currently actively trading and intend to continue to trade
• Declare that they are impacted by reduced demand due to COVID-19 in the qualifying period. The qualifying period for the first grant is between November 1 and the date of claim

You can still claim for the second grant up to October 19, 2020. To be eligible for the second SEISS grant, you must have traded in the tax year 2018 to 2019 and submitted your Self Assessment tax return on or before April 23, 2020 for that year. You must also have traded in the 2019-2020 tax year, and intend to continue trading for 2020-2021.

Income tax deferral – Time to Pay scheme

 Taxpayers who deferred their July 2020 Income Tax payments on account to January 31, 2021 will now be able to pay these over a twelve­ month period, with the final payment due in January 2022.

This builds on the existing Self-Assessment deferral provided by the UK Government in July 2020 and applies to taxpayers with liabilities under self-assessment of up to £30,000.