Emma has worked in finance for over 15 years, becoming a self-employed Bookkeeper 11 years ago, and training to become a Certified Accountant before launching B-Able in 2012.
Emma is dedicated to providing her clients with reliable business support.
It's the news many of you have been waiting on.
Tonight Rishi Sunak announced further measures to support the self employed earners, who have previously been told Universal Credit or Employment Support Allowance would be their only option of support. He has tonight promised to provide grant funding to any self employed earners to reimburse 80% of their NET monthly profits, for the next 3 months up to a value of £2,500 per month, and the option to extend this if required. This would mean in order to get the full £2,500 you would need to be earning £3,125 per month (80% of which, is £2,500).
What you will be paid, will depend on your average earnings for last 3 years. However, if you have not been registered for 3 years, they will either use an average of your last two, or just based on the previous years figures if your only self assessment was for 18-19.
Unfortunately, if you registered for self assessment in the 19-20 tax year, your only option of support will still be Universal Credit or Employment Support Allowance.
If you are late with your 18-19 self assessment which was due to be filed at the end of January 2020, then HMRC are giving you 4 weeks from today, to get your self assessment complete and filed before they will allow you to access the funding.
This funding is a grant, it will not need to be repaid.
PLEASE NOTE - the online application system for this is NOT yet live, we have been told that HMRC will contact all self assessment clients directly to ask them to fill out a simple online form and an automatic bank payment will be made. This is the only information we have at the current time. As always, we will continue to keep you updated and assist you in any way we can to ensure you all receive the support you are entitled to.
Tonight Rishi Sunak announced further measures to support the self employed earners, who have previously been told Universal Credit or Employment Support Allowance would be their only option of support. He has tonight promised to provide grant funding to any self employed earners to reimburse 80% of their NET monthly profits, for the next 3 months up to a value of £2,500 per month, and the option to extend this if required. This would mean in order to get the full £2,500 you would need to be earning £3,125 per month (80% of which, is £2,500).
What you will be paid, will depend on your average earnings for last 3 years. However, if you have not been registered for 3 years, they will either use an average of your last two, or just based on the previous years figures if your only self assessment was for 18-19.
Unfortunately, if you registered for self assessment in the 19-20 tax year, your only option of support will still be Universal Credit or Employment Support Allowance.
If you are late with your 18-19 self assessment which was due to be filed at the end of January 2020, then HMRC are giving you 4 weeks from today, to get your self assessment complete and filed before they will allow you to access the funding.
This funding is a grant, it will not need to be repaid.
PLEASE NOTE - the online application system for this is NOT yet live, we have been told that HMRC will contact all self assessment clients directly to ask them to fill out a simple online form and an automatic bank payment will be made. This is the only information we have at the current time. As always, we will continue to keep you updated and assist you in any way we can to ensure you all receive the support you are entitled to.
Conditions of claiming the Self Employed Income Support Scheme
- This is only available to those earning upto £50k in trading profits in 2018-19 or an average of upto £50k over the last 3 years.
- The scheme is only open to those who have earned more than half of their income via self employment. So those who have a wage made up of employment and self employment, may not be automatically eligible.
- Claims made under the scheme will not be paid out until June, and will be paid in one lump sum payment.
- If you are eligible you can continue to trade, and earn, where possible, in respect of the non-travel limitations currently in place, but you will still receive the grant income.
- Those unable to trade and facing financial difficulty are encouraged to apply for Universal Credit until the grant is paid out in June.
- Universal Credit Claims can take up to 5 weeks to process, but you are able to apply for an advance on your first payment here.
Help us, Help You
- We are encouraging clients to download Zoom, this is an App that can be downloaded to your laptop, PC or smart phone, it allows us host online meetings, where we can screen share documents, allowing us to talk you through your accounts or self assessment, whilst having a video conference. It is allowing us to work better, and stay safe! It will be really useful for you all in your own businesses. Try it out, it's free! Click Here
- Quickbooks Clients - All clients using Quickbooks MUST have their online banking linked up to Quickbooks or provide bank statements in CSV format, we can no longer accept hard copies of bank statements for processing. All online banking platforms now allow you to download statements in CSV format.
- Self Assessment clients - We have access to the self assessment system to enable us to submit your 19/20 tax return from the 6th April. If you are not planning to work between now and then, please make arrangements to get this paperwork to us as soon as possible and we can begin working on your return. If you are due a rebate, I'm sure this will come in extra handy at this time, and anyone who has a bill to pay will have even more time to prepare, or arrange a payment plan with HMRC to delay paying their tax.
About the author
Emma Armstrong