Self Employed Income Support Scheme

[Pieman68]

Interested on people's opinions on this tbh

My wife has her own business (a slimming group franchise) - at the time of the original lockdown her group was closed down and moved virtual, with a large decrease in numbers and income.

She originally started her franchise around 3 years ago but worked alongside and has gradually taken on more groups and left work. She stopped working in April 2019 and went full time with the business

This unfortunately meant that she missed out on the first 3 tranches of SEISS (as did many others) so she went and got herself a job as a domestic at the local hospital (originally covering for someone shielding but has been there ever since)

Now with the occurrence of tranche 4 she qualifies for the payment and I find myself in a bit of a moral dilemma tbh. On the one hand we don't need it as she has covered her outgoings and I have worked throughout. On the other hand our taxes are likely to go up anyway so the argument would be why not if she is eligible

To be honest if we were to claim it it would be put into her business account to build a buffer and be put away for next years tax bill.

Interested in other's opinions tbh

All comments happily received, whichever point of view you have on it.............

[Countdown]

I would say go on the website, answer the questions honestly, and let HMRC decide.

As long as you're not doing anything artificial or being economical with the truth there shouldn't be any problem.

[Pieman68]

Countdown said:

I would say go on the website, answer the questions honestly, and let HMRC decide.

As long as you're not doing anything artificial or being economical with the truth there shouldn't be any problem.

Totally understand that. In the interest of clarity their is no intention of dishonesty in any sense - doesn't strike me as a good idea with HMRC and that's not how either of us is - hence why I probably have the moral dilemma in the first place

[croyde]

I could have applied for No1 but was doing ok and thought Covid would be over soon.

I got emails telling me to apply for No2 so put my details in and got the grant. Good thing as I was struggling. All my freelance work had just simply gone and because I'm getting on it could well be gone for good. A fickle business that has done well for 30 years but now completely destroyed by the governmen's reaction to this illness.

I got No3 and will be applying for No4. It's the least HMRC can do.

I wish I had applied for No1 now.

[Pieman68]

croyde said:

I could have applied for No1 but was doing ok and thought Covid would be over soon.

I got emails telling me to apply for No2 so put my details in and got the grant. Good thing as I was struggling. All my freelance work had just simply gone and because I'm getting on it could well be gone for good. A fickle business that has done well for 30 years but now completely destroyed by the governmen's reaction to this illness.

I got No3 and will be applying for No4. It's the least HMRC can do.

I wish I had applied for No1 now.

Understand your PoV completely. To be fair to her she got off her backside and has spent the last 12 months in paediatric intensive care so it's been a pretty harrowing experience for her even as a domestic. She's worked 7am-1.30pm Mon-Fri without respite (apart from this week) and then done the business full time on top so that there's something to go back to afterwards. I loved the woman massively anyway but my respect for her and her ethics have done nothing but grow over the last 12 months - she's absolutely knackered!

[SCEtoAUX]

If you are entitled to the money then claim it. It's taxable so that's some going straight back.

Spend the rest in the local economy, helping independent shops and businesses if you'd like to feel a bit better about taking it.

(I was eligible for the first two payments and took them. For the third and fourth the income loss had to be substantial, and my loss wasn't).

[clockworks]

I didn't qualify for the first 3 grants as, like the OP's wife, I had a PAYE job up until October 2018.

It looks like I'll be eligible for the 4th grant though, as more than 50% of my income in 2019/20 came from self employment.
The reduction in profit and turnover has been substantial over the whole of 2020/21, mainly because there was no trade work while the shops were forced to close, and some customers followed the rules and didn't make "unnecessary" journeys to bring work to me. Several periods of weeks at a time when the phone didn't ring.

Business is just picking up again now, and will probably be back to normal in a month or two, so I'll be claiming the 4th grant (Feb to April), and possibly the reduced (30%) 5th grant that will cover up to September.

I haven't had any notification from HMRC yet, but I got an email from Money Saving Expert on Tuesday that had a link to a "hidden" page on the .gov website that shows the earliest application date for each eligible taxpayer. It says I can apply from April 29th, which I'm taking to mean that I am actually eligible for the 4th grant - last year when I tried to claim, it said I wasn't eligible.