• Operate in a qualifying economic sector (same as those used for the Co-funded Payroll scheme) – businesses claiming under the Visitor Accommodation Scheme are not eligible for the small business grant
• Be unable to trade or generate less than 70% of normal turnover
• Have been registered with the Revenue Service (including sole traders) for social insurance by 31 December 2020 and have either submitted returns as an employer for quarter 4 of 2020 or in respect of a sole trader, paid class 2 contributions (or set up a direct debit to pay these) from 2020 or earlier – the business must still have been operating when the island went into lockdown on 23 January
• Be run full-time, and if you are self-employed be your main source of income – if you are both employed and self-employed, then you will only be eligible for the small business grant where the business is your main source of income (2019 data will generally be used to determine this, unless there are exceptional circumstances)
• Have monthly expenses of at least £500 (£6,000 per annum) – this may include costs such as utilities, loan repayments, etc. that relate directly to the business. This would not include salaries, personal costs e.g. rent or bills for the house you live in, internal cost transfers to related entities (i.e. a recharge to another group company) or directors fees
• To claim the higher grant, it must also operate out of commercial premises paying either rent or mortgage interest to a third party (which cannot be another company within the same group). A property will be considered a commercial premise if it does not have a domestic rate of TRP charged (i.e. claims will not be accepted where the premises are at a domestic dwelling/land/garage). The business must have been operating out of those premises at 23 January
• If the same business operates out of several premises (for example the same business rents 2 kiosks in town), then it may only claim for one higher small business grant
• Employ 20 or fewer people in the business as at 31 December 2020 (as can be evidenced by ETI return for Q4 2020) – if you are self-employed, then you count as one of those 20 persons. If you have a member of staff that works less than 15 hours, then they will not be counted as an employee for the purposes of determining eligibility for the grant. Where the levels of staff change dramatically on a seasonal basis, the average staff numbers for the prior year will be calculated in order to determine if this equates to 20 employees or less.

If you are involved in several businesses, then only one claim may be submitted unless the businesses operate in different sectors or from different premises (for example you run a restaurant and a shop) – the number of employees in all businesses you are involved in will be aggregated to determine if the small business grant is applicable. For clarity, a group of companies will be defined as sharing the same common beneficial owners/shareholders.

Apply for a Small Business Grant here: https://business-support.gov.gg/small-business-grant/declaration