The fifth round of the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) grants are now being claimed on the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) portal.

Self-employed taxpayers can now apply, when they are notified by HMRC, but they may need to provide two different turnover figures from their business as part of their application.
The portal opened on 29 July, but not everyone can apply at once. HMRC has contacted every self-employed taxpayer (by email or letter) who it believes may be eligible to apply for the fifth and last SEISS grant, giving them a personal start date from which they can apply.
Taxpayers should not attempt to apply before their personal start date as their claim will not be processed.
This staggered start is to prevent every eligible taxpayer applying on the same day and crashing the system, and to give HMRC time to process all the grant payments due.
Taxpayers don’t have to apply for the grant on the first possible day, as the portal will remain open until 30 September 2021, but the sooner they apply, once given the green light, the quicker the money will arrive.
HMRC has checked basic eligibility of taxpayers in advance of opening the claims portal for them, such as whether the 2019/20 tax return was submitted by 2 March 2021.
The taxpayer must make a declaration in the application that they intend to keep trading in 2021/22. Also, that their trade profits will suffer a ‘significant reduction’ due to the impact of Covid-19 in the period between 1 May 2021 and 30 September 2021.
There is no definition of “significant reduction” and HMRC is not planning to provide one. However, the taxpayer is only required to look forward to estimate their profits in the period ending 30 September 2021. They are not required to re-examine their claim with hindsight after the event.
As long as they keep all evidence of why they believed profits have reduced (ignoring any Covid-related grants received), they will be able to show that their reasonable belief at the time of application was that profits would be reduced.
If the taxpayer was eligible for the SEISS-4 grant (or earlier grants), but failed to apply on time they can still apply for the SEISS-5 grant, if they meet the other conditions.
To complete the grant application, most taxpayers need to submit two different turnover figures, as outlined on 7 July.
There are two levels of grant. HMRC will work out your grant amount based on how much your turnover is down by after they have compared your two turnover figures.
Example:

How much your turnover is down by	What you’ll get	Maximum grant amount
30 per cent or more	80 per cent of 3 months’ average trading profits	£7,500
less than 30 per cent	30 per cent of 3 months’ average trading profits	£2,850

Most taxpayers will need help from their accountant to find the required turnover figures. HMRC has created a YouTube video for tax agents to show what clients will see during the SEISS-5 grant application process, and what other information the taxpayer will need to apply.
For help and advice with related matters, please get in touch with our expert team today.