Self-employment Income Support Scheme: Directors

(asked on 5th November 2020) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will (a) expand the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme to include company directors or (b) introduce a similar financial support scheme to include company directors during the covid-19 outbreak.


Answered by
Jesse Norman Portrait
Jesse Norman
This question was answered on 13th November 2020

People who pay themselves a salary through their own company are eligible for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS). The CJRS is available to employers, including owner-managers, and individuals paying themselves a salary through a PAYE scheme are eligible. Where furloughed directors need to carry out particular duties to fulfil their statutory obligations, they may do so provided it is no more than would reasonably be judged necessary for that purpose.

The practical issues that prevented the inclusion of company owner-managers in the original Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS), namely not being able to verify the source of their dividend income without introducing unacceptable fraud risk, still remain.

As with the previous SEISS grants, it is not practically possible for HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to distinguish between dividends derived from an individual’s own company and dividends from other sources, and between dividends in lieu of employment income and as returns from other corporate activity.

This means, unlike with the SEISS grants that use information HMRC already hold, targeting additional support would require owner-managers to make a claim and submit information that HMRC could not manageably verify to ensure payments were made to eligible companies for eligible activity.

Those not eligible for the SEISS Grant Extension may still be eligible for other elements of the financial support available. This includes Bounce Back loans, tax deferrals, rental support, mortgage holidays, self-isolation support payments and other business support grants.

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