I think I have made a mistake...

[chilliplant634]

I am self employed. I didn't claim in the first two rounds of the self employed grant as I stupidly just assumed I wouldn't be eligible. Tonight, I was filling in my tax return and a the link popped up: check if you are eligible for the grant.

I clicked the link and answered the questions and found to my surprise that I was eligible and did meet the criteria, based on my income for 2018-2019 meeting the requirements.

I applied for the grant, but at the end it mentioned that it was using the previous 3 years tax returns. 3 years previously I was earning much more so it would make me not eligible.

Now I am really confused. Are they just looking at income from 2018-2019 or are they using this and previous years? I am worried that I may have claimed when I shouldn't have, but this is a genuine mistake. Have I misunderstood/misread the rules?

I think if you are eligible now, meaning you meet the criteria at the moment then you’ve applied correctly.

They use your tax return from three years ago and pay an average (I think 80%) of earnings from those three months. It’s is capped though.

So it doesn’t matter if you were earning more then. Some people will have been earning more, some less.

If your business has been adversely affected by COVID and you meet the criteria then the claim is fine.

Hope that garbled explanation made sense. Someone else may explain it better!

I’m just re reading your post. The claim must be made on earnings (or lack of) this year. But they use your tax return from three years ago to calculate the amount.

It's an average of 16/17, 17/18 and 18/19 OP. You mustve submitted an 18/19 return by the April extended deadline last year.

So yes, if income was over the threshold 1 or 2 years but low enough on the 3rd to reduce the average to below the threshold then you would eligible.

Can't go back and retrospectively claim though, but you can claim this one!