On 25 March at 5 p.m the Chancellor announced a new package to be paid to the self-employed and members of a partnership who have lost income due to coronavirus.

The following key issues mentioned:

• The government will pay self-employed workers up to £2,500 a month to deal with the fallout from coronavirus.
• The government will play self-employed people a taxable grant worth 80 per cent of their monthly profits of the last three years up to £2500 a month,” he said.
• There is a further condition that your self-employed trading profits must also be less than £50,000 and more than half of your income must come from self-employment.
• Only those who have submitted their 2018/19 tax return, traded in 2019/20 and intend to trade in 2020/21 are eligible. If you have not submitted your Income Tax Self-Assessment tax return for the tax year 2018/19, you must do this by 23 April 2020 to qualify.
• It will be open for at least three months and will extend it for longer if necessary.
• It comes after Sunak announced last week that the government would pay 80 per cent of employees’ wages, up to £2,500, for those who cannot work because of the Covid-19 fallout.
• Any business, regardless of size, can apply for the wage bailout and that there was “no limit” to its size.

What was absent from the statement

What was absent from the Chancellors statement was support for personal service companies (PSC) who are likely to fall between two stools. HMRC guidance however states “If you’re a director of your own company and paid through PAYE you may be able to get support using the Job Retention Scheme (JRS)” but how many PSC directors can justify that they are furloughed!

Please contact Alan Patient & Co for further information to help you through this difficult time.