Self-employment Income Support Scheme

27th March 2020

Further measures were announced on Thursday 26th March to provide financial support to the self-employed. Here is a summary of the detail and eligibility.

-It will provide a grant to self-employed individuals and members of partnerships worth 80% of profits up to a cap of £2,500 per month whose income has been negatively impacted by COVID-19.

-The scheme will run for an initial 3 month period beginning from 1st March.

-Need to have filed a tax return for 2018-19 (and if currently still not filed there is 4 weeks to do so). If you were also self-employed during 2016-17 and 2017-18 profits will be averaged to calculate the grant.

-Will have continued to trade as self-employed during 2019-20, be currently trading other than the effects of COVID-19 and intend to continue to trade into the 2020-21 tax year.

-Have trading profits of less than £50,000.

-More than half of total income was from self-employment.

The scheme will be dealt with by HMRC and there is no need to contact them. They will use existing information to look at eligibility and invite applications when the scheme is operational. The grant will be paid directly into bank accounts and it is expected these will commence from the beginning of June.

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