BiKBBI welcomes SEISS extension

The British Institute of Kitchen, Bedroom & Bathroom Installation today welcomed news that Chancellor Rishi Sunak has extended the Government’s Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS), a single grant covering three months.

Those eligible for SEISS will be able to claim the additional grant in August, which will be worth up to 70% of their average monthly trading profits, capped at £6,570.
The money will again be paid out in a single instalment covering June, July and August, although Mr Sunak added that this extension will conclude the governments financial support of the self-employed.

How will this extention work?

SEISS, the Government grant to self-employed individuals whose businesses have been adversely affected by coronavirus, opened for applications on Wednesday 13 May. It initially covered three months (March, April and May) and the grants were worth up to 80% of profits, capped at £2,500 per month, or £7,500 in total.

If you’re eligible for the scheme you can still apply for this first grant, but the Government’s now said that you’ll need to do so by Monday 13 July.

Applications for the second grant will open in August

The second grant will be worth 70% of average monthly trading profits, paid out in a single instalment covering three months’ worth of average profits (June, July and August), though this time it’ll be capped at £2,190 per month, or £6,570 in total.

The eligibility criteria are the same for both grants, and you don’t need to have claimed the first grant to receive the second.

Eligibility:

• Your average trading profit must be less than £50k a year. This is essentially a ‘cliff-edge’ requirement – so those whose average annual trading profit is more than £50,000 (to be specific, £50,000.01 and above) won’t be able to get any support from this scheme.
• You must earn more than 50% of your total income from self-employment. This must have been the case for either your 2018/19 tax return or, if not, the average of your 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19 tax returns. Income from property, dividends, savings, pensions and taxable benefits all count as “non-trading income” and qualify for the SEISS. The total of these combined must NOT exceed 50% of your total income. For more information on which benefits count as “taxable income”, see our full list here.
• Grants are based on your profits over three tax years. They are based on an average of the tax returns for 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19.
• You must have filed a tax return for 2018/19. This means you must have been self-employed prior to 6 April 2019. The last possible moment to file a 2018/19 tax return was Thursday 23 April (the deadline had been extended from 31 January 2020). If you only had a few months’ self-employment on your 2018/19 return, this will be counted as your total profit for the year – the Government won’t pro-rata it based on your monthly profits.