The scheme created by Government for employees is easy to administer with one employer for lots of employees, and is based on regular income.
For the self–employed, there are issues of profits fluctuating year on year as well as a tax system where the tax return for the year 2018/19 didn’t need submitting until the end of January 2020, meaning your current profits may not be representative of previous periods.
However, Government has provided a scheme to help the self–employed.
The scheme will give the self–employed the same or similar benefits to employees.
To claim, you need to have submitted the 2018/19 tax return, have traded in tax year 2019/20 and intend to trade in tax year 2020/21.
You will need to demonstrate that you have lost profits due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Your trading profits need to be more than half your income, and less than £50,000 for the tax year 2018/19 or for the average for the 3 tax years ending 2018/19.
This will give your the profits for a year used to assess your grant.
The amount you will receive does not need to be repaid but is subject to tax and national insurance.
The maximum you will receive will be 80% of your monthly profits (your yearly assessed profits divided by 12) , to a maximum of £2,500 per month.
The scheme lasts for 3 months and HMRC will contact you in mid May to ask you to claim.
During these unprecedented times, business owners will be worried that their business will survive the outbreak and what may follow.
Harrisons Business Rescue can help your business survive the outbreak as well as the challenges that will be created once lockdown is relaxed.
