Self-employed to receive second grant worth 70% of earnings

The government has announced that the self-employed will receive another grant to cover June, July and August if their business has been affected by coronavirus. Are you eligible?

Who can get the grant? If you’re self-employed or a member of a partnership, then you may be eligible for a grant representing up to 70% of your average profits if you meet the following criteria:

  • you submitted a tax return for 2018/19
  • your business traded during 2019/20
  • your business is continuing to trade, or would be except for coronavirus
  • you intend to continue trading in 2020/21
  • you have lost trading/partnership trading profits due to coronavirus
  • your trading profits were less than £50,000 and represented more than half of your total taxable income

How much will you be paid? You’ll get a taxable grant which will be up to 70% of the average profits from the tax years 2016/17 to 2018/19. If you became self-employed during those years, HMRC will use the average for the years you submitted tax returns for. The maximum amount is £2,250 per month for three months, so to get the full amount you would need to have average profits of £38,570 per annum. Applications for this second and final grant will open in August.

Can you apply if you haven’t claimed the first grant? Absolutely, you can continue to apply for the first grant until 13 July 2020. You don’t need to have claimed the first grant to receive the second grant, for example, if your business has only recently been affected by coronavirus.

If you were eligible for the first grant, HMRC should have contacted you already. You can check your eligibility and update your contact details here.