QUESTION: I’m self-employed and continued to work during the initial weeks of lockdown but business is now significantly down. What support can I get?
ANSWER from Jane Foy, Tax Senior Manager at Deloitte
Although we have been in lockdown for several weeks there are still a lot of people who are only now starting to look at applying for support, perhaps because their business initially held up or they were not expecting lockdown to last for so long.
We now know that the easing of lockdown could take many months.
The good news is that a self-employed person who continues to trade can claim self-employment income support.
The Self Employed Income Support Scheme, administered by HMRC, launched on May 13 and is designed to match support being given to furloughed employees.
Support is calculated at 80% of average monthly profit over the past three years, with a maximum payment of £7,500 to cover March, April and May. The grant is not repayable but it is taxable and may be extended.
However, there are a number of conditions to be met, including proof that your profits have been negatively impacted by COVID-19.
The other main conditions are that more than 50% of your total income arises from self-employment (or as a member of a trading partnership) with profits of less than £50,000 (assessed based on trading profits and total income of prior years).
A tax return for 2018/19 must have been filed including self-employment income or profits from a trading partnership.
Additionally, you must show that trade was carried on in 2019/20, continued at the point of application (or would have but for the impact of COVID-19) and that it’s your intention to continue to trade in the 2020/21 tax year.
Unfortunately, anyone who started a business since April of last year will not be eligible.
Do you have a question about how the coronavirus shutdown will affect you? Email journalist Claire Simpson on c.simpson@irishnews.com or send her a Twitter message @ClaireMSimpson
