I am genuinely torn about applying for the third round of SEISS, and I'm interested to see what others would do I my situation. Apologies for long post but I want to be very clear.
I'm self-employed, and I work partly as a private tutor, partly as a supply teacher and partly as a climbing instructor (income is typically split about 75:10:15). Much of the climbing work is delivering a series of ropework courses for my old mountaineering club, between November and February.
In March of last year, my tuition work unsurprisingly vanished overnight. The Y11s and Y13s who make up most of my client base didn't want to continue to cram for exams that were cancelled, and the remaining Y10s and Y12s were so sick of being online all day that the last thing they wanted was to see me online at 6pm! There was no supply work to be had and climbing instruction was also impossible. My income fell to about 5% of normal in what would have been the busiest part of my year. I applied for SEISS rounds 1 and 2, which did exactly what they were supposed to - they paid out for six months in total, giving 80% and then 70% of my average income. I am incredibly grateful for this, and I am very aware that there are a huge tranche of people who unfairly didn't get SEISS.
The summer was fairly quiet - I had a few tuition clients who wanted to catch up on the largely lost six months of teaching, and a tiny bit of climbing work. In September work picked up fairly well - I had a fair number of exam-year clients who wanted to get ahead in case things went to crap again, and I also picked up a small supply job for the academic year with a local school who'd misplaced a physics teacher. On top of that, I was asked to deliver more than normal the amount of ropework courses - the other instructor who sometimes does them alongside me declined to take any on this year.
Then, of course, comes the tier system and then the latest lockdown. Of the £1100 worth of climbing courses I'd been booked for in late 2020, I only delivered £300 worth. There was a strong expectation I would then be booked for a further £800 or so of courses early in 2021. I've also just found out that now schooling is back to online only, I'm not needed for most of the next two weeks, and I'm down £500 on that. There's also the beginning of private clients starting to pull out after the announcement that GCSE and A levels are off again. So I am provably down £1300, and I have a reasonable belief that my drop in income in this period will be £2000 or more.
So here's the dilemma. I can go press the button in my HMRC account to release SEISS round 3, and with no further checks or queries, I will get about £6500 dropped into my bank account. There is no way for me to say to HMRC that I don't want it all - it's all or nothing.
HMRC say this: "In order to claim, you must reasonably believe that you will suffer a significant reduction in trading profits due to reduced business activity, capacity, demand or inability to trade due to coronavirus during 1 November 2020 to 29 January 2021. Before you make a claim, you must decide if the impact on your business will cause a significant reduction in your trading profits for the tax year you report them in. HMRC cannot make this decision for you because your individual and wider business circumstances will need to be considered when deciding whether the reduction is significant."
I am quite confident that I will be about £2000 worse off because of Covid. Does that mean I should take the £6500? I have been prudent and have decent savings, and can ride out the missing £2000, but does that make it 'not significant' to me?
My other concern is that in the future, HMRC come and ask why my profits look £4500 up on the year... I've never been audited and I do not fear it (I declare 100% of my income and pay my fair taxes) but I suspect it would be a bugger of a faff if they did want to look at everything.
What would you do? I think if I do take it, I will then make some pretty significant charity donations with the excess.
Like = take the grant, dislike = don't.