From Monday 4 May, HMRC has commenced contacting taxpayers who may be eligible for the Self Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS).
The claims service will open on 13 May and payment should be received within 6 working days of approval.
HMRC will calculate your average monthly trading profit and pay 80% of this for the 3-month period March/April/May.
Trading profits are averaged over the tax years 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19 (or shorter period if relevant)
The grant is capped at £2,500 per month so £7,500 will be the maximum paid.
To be eligible you must have:
- Traded in the 2018/19 tax year and submitted a tax return for that year pre 23 April 2020.
- Traded in 2019/20 and intend to continue to trade.
- Been adversely affected by Coronavirus.
- Trading profits less than £50,000 and less than half your total income.
HMRC are inviting taxpayers to check eligibility on the HMRC website, for which you will need only your UTR and NI number.
Authorised agents like ourselves can do this part for you but we are not permitted to complete the claim on your behalf.
It is vital therefore that you have your own Government Gateway user ID and password – see below for instructions.
If you do not have a user ID, you can create one when you check your eligibility online.
You will also have to provide HMRC with a bank account sort code and number for the grant to be paid into.
Instructions on how to create government gateway account
- Go to HMRC’s login page.
- Click the GREEN sign in button.
- Click “Create sign in details”
- Enter your email address where asked.
- You will now be emailed a confirmation code. …use this code to confirm your email address.
- Enter your full name
- Create a password
- Set up a recovery word
- You will now be issued with a User ID for your government gateway account – you need this to sign in.
To sign into your government gateway account, you may then be required to set up additional security for HMRC to send an access code to for you to sign in by one of the following:
-Text message
-Voice code
-Authentication code for smartphone or tablet.
You may also then be asked to confirm who you are- First name, last name, NI number and DOB
Finally, you may be asked to confirm your identity with one of the following options:
UK Driving Licence (NOT NI)
UK Passport (NOT IRISH)
Multiple choice security question e.g. when did you last take out a new credit card/ current account/mobile phone contract
The questions to confirm your identity appear to be where most clients are having difficulty. If you do not pass security, HMRC will ask you to phone them.
Further information and a link to set up your Government Gateway ID is below.