Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 20 May 2020
73. Deputy Niall Collins asked the Minister for Finance if an application (details supplied) for the temporary wage subsidy scheme previously disallowed due to an administrative error will be reviewed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5875/20]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) is an emergency measure to deal with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy. The underlying legislation and the scheme itself were developed within a very short timeframe to support the urgent Government objective of getting much needed assistance to employers and employees, where businesses have been seriously affected by the necessary restrictions introduced to fight the pandemic. The purpose of the scheme is to ensure that the relationship between employers and employees is maintained to the greatest extent possible so that businesses can restart operations quickly once that is possible.
The TWSS builds on data returned to Revenue through its real-time PAYE System and is based on each employee’s average net weekly pay. The average net weekly pay is calculated from the information contained in payroll submissions reported by the employer to Revenue for January and February 2020 pay dates. The core principles of the scheme, as set out in the legislation are that:
- the business is suffering significant negative economic impact due to the pandemic,
- the employees were on the payroll at 29 February 2020, and
- the employer had fulfilled its PAYE reporting obligations for February 2020 by 15 March 2020.
Revenue recently amended the 15 March 2020 eligibility deadline for the February payroll submission to ‘before’ 1 April 2020 under its care and management provisions. This concession applies where all earlier returns were submitted before 15 March 2020. These requirements are critical safeguards against abuse and exploitation of the scheme.
Revenue has advised me that the weekly payroll submissions for February 2020 in respect of the business in question were not received until 16 April 2020, which is outside of the revised ‘before’ 1 April 2020 deadline. Revenue has further confirmed that the January 2020 payroll submissions were also not received until 16 April 2020 and that over the course of 2019, payroll submissions were generally not received within the required deadlines.
Revenue further advise me that it is for these reasons that the business cannot access the TWSS and that it is not possible for Revenue to design systems that will allow entry to the scheme where the inbuilt eligibility thresholds have not been adhered to.
