Potential claimants of the grant should look out for an email with their personal claim date which should start being sent by HMRC any day now.

The fifth self-employment grant covers lost or reduced earnings from May to September 2021, offering up to 80% of trading profits or £7,500 over three months.

HMRC states that you should only claim the fifth grant if you think your business profit will be impacted by coronavirus between 1 May 2021 and 30 September 2021.

If you claim, you must keep appropriate records as evidence of the impact on your business.

Am I eligible for the fifth SEISS?

The eligibility for the fifth SEISS grant is the same as for the fourth. You must be a self-employed individual or a member of a partnership and have traded in the tax years 2019-20 and 2020-21. You must also be still trading or currently temporarily unable to do so due to Covid-19.

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You also must have submitted your 2019 to 2020 tax return on or before 2 March 2021, have trading profits of no more than £50,000, and your trading profits must be at least equal to, or more than, your non-trading income.

Non-trading income is any money that you make outside of your business such as from PAYE work or investments.

The fifth grant is different from previous grants. In most cases, when making your claim you’ll need to tell HMRC about your business turnover so it can work out your grant amount.

To make your claim, you’ll need to have two different turnover figures: the first is for the 12-month period starting in April 2020, and the second is from either 2019 to 2020 or 2018 to 2019.

HMRC will compare these figures to work out how much you’ll get.

How much is the fifth SEISS grant?

Unlike previous SEISS grants, there are two levels of grant this time. HMRC will work out your grant amount based on how much your turnover is down by after it has compared your two turnover figures.

If your turnover is down by 30% or more, you’ll get 80% of three months’ average trading profits up to a maximum grant for £7,500. If your turnover is down by less than 30%, you’ll get 30% of three months’ average trading profits up to a maximum of £2,850.

The grant is subject to income tax and self-employed National Insurance contributions. It must be reported on your 2021 to 2022 self-assessment tax return.