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
