Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 13 December 2023
60. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Finance whether he will reconsider the calculation of the EWSS employer's contribution given that this was calculated based on net income unlike other jurisdictions and employers are now struggling to meet the high repayment lump sum. [55529/23]
View answer61. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Finance whether he is aware that employers are being billed for amounts totalling over 20% of the sum they received for employees through the EWSS; and if he can make a statement explaining how this situation occurred. [55530/23]
View answer62. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Finance the person body that an employer can contact to query their tax burden on foot of the EWSS. [55531/23]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 60 to 62, inclusive, together.
Section 28B of the Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19) Act 2020 provides for the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS), which was an economy-wide enterprise support provided to eligible businesses in respect of eligible employees.
The administration of the EWSS was placed under the care and management of Revenue. Throughout the Scheme and since its cessation, Revenue has been carrying out a risk-focused program of compliance interventions to identify businesses that have overclaimed EWSS subsidies, to quantify the amounts overclaimed and to recoup these overclaimed subsidies. These overclaims arose, for example, in circumstances where employers had claimed subsidies in respect of periods during which they were not eligible for the Scheme.
Eligibility to EWSS was based on the employer demonstrating that its business was likely to experience a 30% reduction in turnover or orders during a specific reference period and that the disruption to business was caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition, the business was required to be tax compliant.
Employees were eligible if they were in receipt of weekly gross wages between €151.50 and €1,462. Revenue’s administration of the scheme was on a self-assessment basis, with employers claiming the subsidy through their payroll submission to Revenue. The legislation also provided that employers were required to carry out a monthly review of eligibility. If employers subsequently determined they were not eligible, or they wished to voluntarily remove themselves from the scheme, they did so through their payroll submission and repaid the subsidies claimed.
I am advised by the Revenue Commissioners that no EWSS overpayments arose as a result of Revenue paying out money in excess of what was claimed meaning no lumpsum repayments arise for eligible employers. The only circumstance in which employers were required to repay EWSS is if they were not eligible to receive it.
As already noted, Revenue has been carrying out a risk-focused program of compliance interventions to identify businesses that have overclaimed EWSS subsidies, to quantify the amounts overclaimed and to recoup these overclaimed subsidies.
In most instances, agreement is reached with employers and EWSS subsidies overclaimed are recouped or the liability has been warehoused for those employers who qualified for the Debt Warehousing Scheme and who opted to have the debt warehoused. Where agreement is not reached with an employer, Revenue raises an EWSS notice of assessment and employers have the option to submit an appeal to the Tax Appeals Commission (TAC) within 30 days of the notice of assessment.
An employer can query their EWSS liability with the relevant Revenue Division dealing with the employer’s tax affairs by logging in to ROS and raising a query. They can use the “Contact Us” facility on www.revenue.ie to find the correct contact details for their query.
To date, Revenue has worked with employers to finalise 9,288 compliance interventions, relating to 8,477 employers and recouping €206.3m. This equates to 2.6% of EWSS paid to date, which highlights the high compliance rate observed by the majority of employers who participated in the Scheme. There are a further 285 compliance checks ongoing, which will be finalised in due course.
With regards to the Deputy’s question on whether I will reconsider the calculation of the employer’s contribution, I am satisfied with the conditions of the scheme and have no plans to make any retrospective amendments to it.
