Furlough and Self Employed Income Support is extended until September

The coronavirus job retention scheme (CJRS) will continue until 30 September 2021

What support is given?

• 80% of gross wages will be paid for as a grant for time not worked (furloughed) up to a maximum of £2,500 until June falling to 70% and £2,187.50 for July and 60% and £1,875 for August and September
• an employer must pay the employee at least 80% of their usual wage when not working and can top up the extra 20% if they choose to do so at their own cost
• employers must pay all of the employer’s national insurance and minimum pension contributions
• payments are made within 6 working days of claiming

What employees qualify?

• any employee on a payroll filed with HMRC by midnight on Tuesday 2 March 2021 qualifies
• the employee must have been paid
• all employees qualify including directors and company secretaries

Is part-time (flexi) furlough allowed?

• flexi and full-time furlough is permitted, allowing for staff to work part-time
• there is no minimum working time to qualify for flexi furlough – it can be a week, day, or hour

Do all employers qualify?

• all employers can claim unless your staff costs are publicly funded

How to claim?

• claims are made using a HMRC portal
• hours not worked and usual hours will need to be reported for anyone flexi furloughed
• the grant can be claimed 14 days prior to or after submitting a pay run

The Self Employed Income Support scheme (SEISS) will continue until 30 September 2021

The Government has announced that there will be a fourth grant covering February 2021 to April 2021 to be claimed by 31 May 2021, and a fifth grant from May to September (claim deadline to be announced).

This taxable 4th grant allows payments to be made for:-

• A quarterly grant of 80% of average monthly taxable profits over the three years to 5 April 2021
• Capped at a total of £7,500
• Payable as a lump sum and administered by HMRC

The 5th grant has a different payment structure:-

• The grant value will be determined based on a turnover test in the year April 2020 to April 2021
• Traders whose turnover has decreased by 30% or more will receive the full grant worth 80% of three months’ average trading profits, capped at £7,500 in total
• Traders whose turnover has decreased by less than 30% will receive a 30% grant, capped at £2,850
• Claims can be made from late July 2021

To qualify you must:-

The same eligibility conditions apply to both rounds of grant funding.

• Have submitted your Income Tax Self Assessment tax return for the tax year 2019-20 on or by 2 March 2021
• Have traded in the tax years 2019-20 and 2020-21
• Be trading and impacted by COVID-19 when you apply or would be except for COVID-19
• Intend to continue to trade
• Have lost significant trading/partnership trading profits due to COVID-19. You should keep records to support this
• Have average self-employed trading profits between £0 – £50,000
• Have more than half of your total income from self-employment profits
• You can check online with HMRC to find out if you’re eligible to make a claim. You’ll need your Self Assessment Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) number and your National Insurance number

How to claim?

• You must make the claim yourself. Your tax agent or adviser must not claim on your behalf as this will trigger a fraud alert, and you will have to contact HMRC. This will cause a significant delay in receiving your payment.
• You can claim online with HMRC using your Government Gateway user ID and password – if you do not have a user ID, you can create one when you make your claim.

The grant payments form part of your self-employment income and are included for working out your income tax and national insurance. This scheme does not cover directors or shareholders trading as a limited company. They have to use the “furloughing” grant claim scheme. There is more information at .gov.uk