The coronavirus outbreak has affected people’s lifes as well as many businesses around the world that are now concerned about its impact on them. They fear that its fast spread will bring down the economic growth and that no solution will be enough to stop it, for this reason, the UK government took measures to advise, support, and help businesses to overcome this unprecedented period through a dedicated website where information for businesses is provided.
Self-employment Income Support Scheme
Due to the coronavirus outbreak, self-employed individuals saw their income being drastically impacted in a negative way. To support them, the UK government intervened with the Self-employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) which will pay 80% of their profits, covering wages of up to £2,500 per month. In order for self-employed individuals to know if they are eligible for the scheme, they must meet some conditions such as being self-employed or a member of a partnership, having lost trading/partnership trading profits due to COVID-19, and filing a tax return for 2018-19 as self-employed or a member of a trading partnership.
In order to access the scheme, individuals will be contacted by HMRC which will check all the existing information and decide whether individuals are eligible or not. As to when the grants will be delivered, the UK government announced that they were expected in June as they are working on the scheme. Full guidance on this has been published on the website of the UK government.
To know more about the Self-employment Income Support Scheme, please follow the link: https://bit.ly/39oTUAZ
The government also provided guidance and answers to certain questions as to what happens to individuals whose 2018/19 profits are very different from what they expected, and if this grant is subject to tax, or what should self-employed people do while they wait to be paid. In these cases, the government will take into account the recently provided data and consider the grant to be subject to tax. It has also provided over £6.5bn of additional support to self-employed people.
The UK government stresses the importance of filing the 2018/19 tax return and grants a four weeks’ period to those who have not filled it yet. Moreover, it has capped its scheme and targeted those most in need to overcome their difficulties, in fact, those with higher income will not benefit from the scheme.
This scheme covers people who are self-employed and pay themselves a salary, it also makes SMEs eligible for this support by granting them access to loans. However, self-employed individuals who work through a company will not benefit from the support. As the demands on the DWP and HMRC are high, the government took measures to prioritize the safety and the stability of the tax system, so as to the self-employed people on universal credit, they benefit twice as the UC (which is a payment to help with living costs) will adjust the number of benefits related to the income. Unemployed people will also benefit from these measures. For further information, you can visit the following website: https://bit.ly/2WNLHUc.
Through this move, the UK government will help businesses to face this crisis and thus save hundreds of jobs and employees, and by protecting them, it will protect the nation’s economy.
