The Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (‘TWSS’) has now moved, with effect from Monday 4th May, from the ‘Transitional Phase’ to the ‘Operational Phase’. During the Operational Phase, the Office of the Revenue Commissioners (‘Revenue’) will calculate the details of each eligible employee’s Maximum Weekly Wage Subsidy (‘MWWS’) based on their Average Revenue Net Weekly Pay (‘ARNWP’) and provide this information to employers. This information is now available to download from ROS for each employer, by means of a CSV file.
Revenue have issued further updates to their FAQ Document on the ‘Operation of the Transitional Phase of the Temporary COVID-19: Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme’.
Version 8 Update of the FAQ for the Transitional Phase of the TWSS
The Version 8 update includes:
- Guidance on what constitutes an eligible employee, following Revenue’s announcement that it will allow certain employers who had not fulfilled their PAYE reporting obligations for February 2020 by 15th March 2020, to access the TWSS. For these employers, the subsidy will be available in respect of pay dates on or after 24th April.
- Confirmation that for payroll submissions made on or after 16 April 2020, with a pay date on or after 16th April 2020 the wage subsidy is available to support employees whose ARNWP was greater than €960, and their current gross pay is below €960 per week, subject to the tiered arrangements and tapering. For such employees, the maximum additional payment an employer can make, to receive the full subsidy, is the difference between €960 and their maximum weekly wage subsidy.
The link to the updated document is as follows:
Revenue FAQ’s on Wage Subsidy Scheme – V8.pdf
Version 9 Update of the FAQ outlines details of the Operational Phase of the TWSS
The Version 9 update includes:
- Information on the contents of the Employer CSV file; how to download the file and the consequences of not using the information provided in this file.
- The wage subsidy rates effective from 4 May and subsidy tapering, with examples.
- At a future date, Revenue will perform a reconciliation of employer refunds made to the employer from 26 March up to 4 May. Where necessary Revenue will adjust the amount of future refunds that it will make to the employer to take into account the difference between the subsidy the employee was eligible for and the €410 that Revenue refunded to the employer during the Transitional Phase.
- Answers to questions on whether employers in the community and voluntary sectors in receipt of State funding can qualify for the TWSS.
- Content on the circumstances in which an employee is not an ‘eligible employee’.
- Confirmation that neither the employer nor the employee may benefit from the scheme where the sum of payments (subsidy plus any additional gross payment but excluding tax refunds) payable to the employee, in the week being processed, exceeds the lesser of the ARNWP or €960 (with the exception of where the ARNWP does not exceed €412, the gross pay plus the temporary wage subsidy can exceed the ARNWP, subject to a cap of €350 per week). This means that an employer must taper the subsidy correctly to ensure that the total amount paid to the employee does not exceed the ARNWP (or €960, whichever is the lesser) in order for the employee to remain eligible for the scheme. If the additional Gross Pay plus the subsidy paid exceeds the ARNWP (or €960, whichever is the lesser), then the employee is not eligible for that payroll and the employer will not be refunded.
- Confirmation that the employer does not have to cease the employment on the payroll for an employee to be able to receive the COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (COVID-PUP). However, if an employee is receiving both COVID-PUP and the wage subsidy scheme, DEASP will cease their COVID-PUP payments.
- Worked examples in Appendix 3, which illustrate the calculation of the subsidy for different levels of ARNWP and how the tiering and the tapering of the subsidy applies.
- The Transitional Phase will apply to all TWSS submissions received on or before 3 May.
The link to the updated document is as follows:
Revenue FAQ’s on Wage Subsidy Scheme – V9.pdf
Revenue has also released a Sample Subsidy Calculator in Excel which can be used as an indicative guide to demonstrate how an employee’s subsidy can be calculated during the Operational Phase. The link to this calculator is as follows:
https://www.revenue.ie/en/corporate/communications/documents/twss-sample-subsidy-calculator.xlsx
The areas of the FAQ documents that have been updated are highlighted. All updates / clarifications on the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme are welcome and should be referenced / considered for relevance.
Information courtesy of BDO – www.bdo.ie