Self employed- Furlough

[LockdownBlue]

Name changed as I don't want this linked to my normal profile.

In my circle of friends, there are a lot of self employed individuals. Lots of trades. Plumber, electrician plaster etc. All who have claimed the furlough grant. Claiming they have less or no work. All of which have lots of work on. Booked for weeks in advance. Not been affected past maybe the very beginning of lockdown. Though some were able to continue in this time, classed as keyworkers.

Surely this can't be right? I'm a higher earner and so is DH. Neither of us qualify for furlough. (I'm on mat leave, but wouldn't have been furloughed. None of my team at work have been either).

I don't understand how this can be right. These people have claim £4000+ and have applied for the next round of grants but haven't stopped working, in some cases, are earning more than before COVID.

It doesn't feel fair. I pay an awful lot of tax. And it's only going to go up. I understand this situation will mean tax increases. It's inevitable. Just can't get my head around people who are using this situation for financial gain. Will this catch up with them?

Self employed people will be taxed on this grant as income. Also they currently pay lower tax as they have uncertain jobs with no protection, holiday or sickness pay. But the government said this will increase so they will pay more tax in future. The government will get their money back! Not surprising that many decided to claim it whatever!

My DH gets his invoices paid about two months after jobs have finished and they are long jobs, so he is OK at the moment but will have no incoming in August, September and October even if he is working then.

Apart from all the deaths obviously, one of the worse things about this pandemic has been people harping on about this isn't fair and that isn't fair, and he is doing that and she's doing this. Why not just support each other and be kind? You know little of other people's circumstances.

I spoke to a tax consultant to find out if I was eligible to claim, as one big regular client cancelled, but I had other work at the time that was preplanned taking me over my normal earnings for that period only (this is a once a year job). He said HMRC are being intentionally woollly and the only guidance is that you are "affected", that I could argue that because some payees were late paying me and also that I have lost this regular client, despite having a busy month for that one project, I was entitled to claim.

He has pressed HMRC to clarify what "affected adversely" means and they would not clarify further. So assume it can be in any way adversely affected from a project being delayed, to an unpaid invoice, to a couple of days not working.

It may not seem "fair" but these people are legitimately claiming.

Your business could be adversely affected by coronavirus if, for example:

you’re unable to work because you:
    are shielding
    are self-isolating
    are on sick leave because of coronavirus
    have caring responsibilities because of coronavirus
you’ve had to scale down, temporarily stop trading or incurred additional costs because:
    your supply chain has been interrupted
    you have fewer or no customers or clients
    your staff are unable to come in to work
    one or more of your contracts have been cancelled
    you had to buy protective equipment so you could trade following social distancing rules