Income from Self-Employment, Farming or Rental

If your household income for 2023 was, in part, or all, from self-employment, farming or property/land rental, you may receive a checklist letter from SUSI requesting the following documents.

• Revenue’s indicative calculation on which you based your self-assessment; and
• A full set of trading accounts, for 12 months, ending in the year 2023 (for each set of trade, farming or rental income listed on the Revenue’s indicative calculation on which you based your self-assessment, under schedule D) to include the following:

Trading profit and loss account

Capital Account

Balance Sheet and

Adjusted Profit Computation

SUSI does not accept the Form 11 in place of the trading accounts or the Revenue’s indicative calculation on which you based your self-assessment. In certain circumstances, however, the Form F11 may be requested. Please note that accounts ending in 2024 are not acceptable.

We also need to know:

• If the business is trading as a limited company, a partnership or a sole trader. This information should be included in the accounts.
• Please ensure that you also inform us of any directorships or shareholdings held, in Section F of the application form, part 6.

If your income is low, you may not be required to keep a capital account and balance sheet. In that case we will need to see the profit and loss account or the income and expenditure account and Revenue’s indicative calculation on which you based your self-assessment.

Even if your Revenue’s indicative calculation on which you based your self-assessment, states an income of “0,” we will still need to verify this with a set of accounts for the year 2023.

Net Income and Add-backs

Certain deductions allowed by revenue, also known as Add Backs, are not allowable for grant assessment purposes. A list of these Add Backs can be found in the Student Grant Scheme and include the following:

• Depreciation
• Interest on borrowing which funds the fixed assets of the business or the personal expenditure of the proprietor; and
• Finance lease payments;
• Remuneration in respect of;

Wages or payments made without applying the PAYE and PRSI regulations, or equivalent regulations;

Wages or payments to dependent children;

Wages or payments to non-dependent children where the payment is above the norm for work undertaken; and

Add-back for personal expenditure charges against the business income.

An example of personal expenditure would be personal use on motor expenses, light and heat and telephone.

In calculating the reckonable income for a self-employed person, SUSI uses the net profit, as taken from the profit and loss account and “add-back” items as listed above.

Farming Income

Please note the following details in relation to Farming Income.

• Any income tax adjustment for farm stock relief is disregarded; and
• Farming accounts are sometimes averaged over a three year period. We only look at the income in the relevant year, 2023. Therefore we will need to see the accounts for the year in question.

Cessation of Trading

If you ceased trading, you may ask SUSI to assess or re-assess your application under change in circumstances.

Only cessation of trading can be considered a change of circumstance as the nature of self-employment, farming and rental income is variable and a reduction in such is not considered a permanent change.