Self-employed individuals will be able to apply for the fourth SEISS grant from late April if they submitted their tax return for 2019-20 by midnight on 2 March 2021 (it was due by 31 January 2021).

HMRC has asked for additional evidence from two categories of taxpayer. This will need to be provided very quickly otherwise HMRC will block the SEISS application.

New traders must respond to a letter and phone call from HMRC and upload a copy of their ID plus three months of bank statements from 2019-20 to a Dropbox link provided by HMRC. If you started your business after 5 April 2019 you will fall into this category.

Ensure that HMRC has your current telephone number by calling 0800 0241222. Do not delay once you have received the Dropbox link as it will expire after two days.

Where the 2019-20 tax return included a box checked to say that the self-employed business had ceased or changed (eg from a partnership to a sole trader) the taxpayer will have received an email from HMRC asking for more details. If you fall into this category you need to email the SEISS compliance team at HMRC on seisscomplianceteam@hmrc.gov.uk.

To prove that your business is active, or is only temporarily suspended due to Covid-19 and that you intend to carry on trading beyond the SEISS grant application date in late April, HMRC will require evidence of your trading activity or preparations to continue trading such as:

• advertising booked by the business;
• business receipts or sales invoices;
• contracts to provide goods or services; or
• payments made through a business bank account.

Other forms of evidence may be accepted but act quickly as the window to provide this evidence is very short.

Last updated: April 29th 2021.