Changes to Wage Subsidy Scheme a welcome relief

Ged Nash

24 April 2020

• administrative changes to wage subsidy scheme will come as a relief to hundreds of companies

 Deputy Ged Nash said:

“Since the 3^rd April, I have been lobbying the Minister for Finance to make a minor administrative change to the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme to allow companies who, for a variety of reasons uploaded payroll details late via the Revenue Online System and then fell outside of the terms of the scheme access the TWSS.

“The scheme originally applied only to firms where “all eligible employees are included on a payroll submission with a pay date in the month of February made by the employer in the period from 1 February 2020 to 15 March 2020”. Therefore, employers who may have been late loading up their payroll details and did so after the 15^th March were automatically ineligible.

“In one case brought to my attention, a company that fell outside of these strict conditions ended up letting 30 employees go with the prospect of another 40 workers being laid off if the company could not access the TWSS scheme.

“The changes made today represent a sensible and pragmatic approach and are very welcome.

“The Revenue Commissioners have now issued a public statement stating that certain employers who hadn’t met their February 2020 PAYE reporting and uploading obligations by the 15^thMarch will now be allowed to access the TWSS, provided that;

• the companies concerned included their employees on the payroll on the 29^thFebruary;
• that submission of payroll for February was made to the Revenue Commissioners before the 1^st April and;
• that payroll submissions for all previous months were in order and were made in the normal way prior to the 15^th March.