Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the number of (a) tax returns for the tax year 2019-20 that were outstanding as at 31 January 2021 and (b) recipients of support under the third round of Self-Employed Income Support Scheme grants whose tax returns for tax year 2019-20 were outstanding as at 31 January 2021.

HMRC waived the late filing penalty for tax returns filed online by 28 February in order to provide relief to all Self-Assessment taxpayers and agents at a time of significant pressure. The statutory filing deadline of 31 January did not change.

According to HMRC, 11.4 million people had submitted their 2019-20 Self-Assessment tax returns by 28 February. About 1.1 million returns are outstanding. Not all of these cases will ultimately file a return or will be self-employed.

HMRC analysis of filing volumes around this period suggests that an estimated 97% of individuals who claimed the third Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) grant, about 2.1 million people, had submitted their 2019-20 Self-Assessment tax return by 28 February.

An estimate of the number of self-employed individuals who will be ineligible for the fourth SEISS grant as a result of their tax return for the tax year 2019-20 not having been submitted by 2 March 2021 is not available. This will depend on the number of individuals that file a 2019-20 return after that date and the information they submit.

At Spring Budget the Government announced a major improvement in access to the SEISS. HMRC will use 2019-20 tax returns to determine eligibility for the fourth and fifth grants, provided they were submitted by 2 March.

This means about 600,000 people, many of whom became self-employed in 2019-20, may now be able to claim the fourth and fifth grants, bringing the total number of people who could be eligible to about 3.7 million.