How to claim a grant through the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme

The government has launched a new web-based service to allow the self-employed to check their eligibility for the COVID-19 related Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (“SEISS”).  Those that qualify can receive a taxable grant of up to £7,500.

Checking your eligibility

There is an on-line eligibility checker:

https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/self-employment-support/enter-unique-taxpayer-reference

In order to log on, you will need your Self-Assessment Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) number and your National Insurance (NI) number.

We will be pleased to check your eligibility for you. If HMRC confirms your eligibility, they will tell you the date you’ll be able to make a claim from and ask you to add your contact details. They will use these contact details to remind you when the online claims service will be available.

If the HMRC eligibility checker states that you that you’re not eligible to make a claim, you can ask HMRC to review this.

We will be pleased to check your eligibility and, if necessary, appeal the decision to HMRC.

Making the claim

According to the latest information from HMRC, the claims portal will be live from 13 May 2020 although not everyone will be able to claim on that date.  HMRC will advise when you can make your claim.

In addition to your UTR and NI number you will also need only need your:

• Government Gateway user ID and password – if you do not have a user ID, you can create one when you check your eligibility online
• Bank account number and sort code for HMRC to pay the transfer

You will also have to confirm to HMRC that your business has been adversely affected by coronavirus

Unfortunately we will not, according to current HMRC policy, be able to make the claim for you.

Government Gateway ID – how do I get one

1. Go to https://www.gov.uk/log-in-register-hmrc-online-services
2. Click the GREEN sign in button.
3. Click “Create sign in details”
4. Enter your email address where asked.
5. You will now be emailed a confirmation code. Use this code to confirm your email address.
6. You will now be issued with a User ID for your government gateway account.

Print this page as a PDF and file it somewhere safe. The user ID is a digital string so not memorable. Losing this ID can create a lot of problems in the future 

How do I register to claim under the SEISS

Now that you have setup your Government Gateway account, you next need to add Self -Assessment to your account.

To add it you will need to do the following:

1. From the business tax summary page, click “get online access to a tax, duty or scheme”
2. Select ‘Self-Assessment’ 
3. Click the GREEN continue button
4. Have your UTR and NI numbers to hand.
5. After you have added the tax HMRC will then post an activation code to your registered business address.
6. Once the code arrives, input this into the account and the tax will (finally) be added onto the account. Please note that you might have to wait 24 hours for the system to update and for it to actually show.

If all of the above seems rather complex, don’t panic and get in touch!

SRC-Time are one of the South East’s leading accountancy firms in advising individuals and businesses in all aspects of their accounting and tax affairs and we are able to assist in any issue raised above.

Our expert team is available to provide you with advice and can be contacted on 01273 326 556 or you can drop us an email at info@src-time.co.uk  or speak with an account manager to get any process started.