Reporting COVID-19 grants and support payments
If you operate as a business, find out if you need to include a COVID-19 grant or support payment on your tax return.
Grants and payments from schemes to support businesses and self-employed individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic are taxable.
Who should report a grant or support payment
If you received a payment to support you during COVID-19, you may need to report this on your tax return if you are:
- self-employed
- in a partnership
- a business
Which payments you need to report
You need to report grants and payments from COVID-19 support schemes. These include:
- the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS)
- test and trace or self-isolation payments in England, Scotland and Wales
- the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS)
- Eat Out to Help Out
- Coronavirus Statutory Sick Pay Rebate
- Coronavirus Business Support Grants
Coronavirus Business Support Grants
These are grants or payments made by one of the following:
- local authorities
- devolved administrations
- any other public authority
They are also known as local authority grants or business rate grants.
Examples of these grants in England include:
- Small Business Grant Fund
- Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund
- Local Authority Discretionary Grant Fund
- Fisheries Response Fund
Examples of these grants in Wales include:
- Welsh Government Business Grants (Grants 1 and 2)
- Economic Resilience Fund
Examples of these grants in Scotland include:
- Business Support Fund
- Newly Self-Employed Hardship Fund
- Creative, Tourism and Hospitality Enterprises Hardship Fund
- Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund
- Aquaculture Hardship Fund
- Sea Fisheries Hardship Fund
Examples of these grants in Northern Ireland include:
- Small Business Support Grant Scheme
- Retail, Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure Grant
- other business related COVID-19 emergency and hardship funds
If you have received a Coronavirus Business Support Grant, it is taxable.
There are some exceptions, for example, if the grant was made to a mutual trading organisation.
How to report a grant or payment
Self Assessment tax return
SEISS payments should be placed in the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme Grant box on your Self Assessment tax return. You should record all other taxable COVID-19 payments in the any other business income box.
If you’re self-employed, find out how to report your grant or payment using:
- the SA103S — short notes
- the SA103F — full notes
If you’re in a partnership, find out how to report your grant or payment using:
- the SA104S — short notes
- the SA104F — full notes
Company Tax Return
If you received a Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme grant or an Eat Out to Help Out payment, you will need to do both of the following:
- include it as income when calculating your taxable profits in line with the relevant accounting standards
- report it separately on your Company Tax Return using the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and Eat Out to Help Out boxes
You should record all other taxable COVID-19 payments as income when you calculate your taxable profits.
Find out how to report a grant or payment on your Company Tax Return (CT600).
Which payments you do not need to report
You do not need to report a COVID-19 support payment on your Self Assessment tax return if this is a welfare payment made by a council to an individual, for example to help with:
- council tax payments
- housing benefit
Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme loans and Bounce Back loans are not COVID-19 support payments or grants. You do not need to report these on your tax return.
Help and support
If you are not sure if the COVID-19 support payment you received is taxable or you would like further help, you should contact HMRC.
Updates to this page
Last updated 16 September 2023 + show all updates
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The guidance has been updated, as the COVID-19 helpline for businesses and the self-employed is now closed.
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New section 'Company Tax Return' added. This explains that grants and payments to support businesses during coronavirus (COVID-19) are taxable and need to be declared on Company Tax Returns.
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First published.