The Irish Times is reporting this morning that only a quarter of employers have registered for the temporary wage subsidy scheme to help retain staff.
www.irishtimes.com/business/personal-finance/employers-slow-to-take-up-covid-19-wage-subsidy-scheme-1.4231888
I believe the reasons for this are included in poorly-worded and vague Revenue guidelines to employers attached to the scheme which is putting a lot of them off.
1. " The employer is expected to make best efforts to maintain the employee’s net income as close as possible to normal net income for the duration of the Subsidyperiod. There is no minimum amount that the employer must pay as an additional payment in order to be eligible for the scheme. "
2. " An employer that has been hit by a significant decline in business but has strong cash reserves, that are not required to fund debt, will still qualify for the Scheme but the Government would expect the employer to continue to pay a significant proportion of the employees’ wages. "
The lack of clear guidance on what constitues strong cash reserves or significant propertion of wages leaves an employer open to a later Revenue audit that could require the repayment of subsidies with interest and possible penalties.
An employer is therefore faced with the choice of continuing to pay staff for an indefinite period of time out of cash reserves as well as meeting all the usual costs and outgoings with no income or laying off staff, especially low paid or part-time who could probably claim as much if not more than their usual salary with the flat €350 payment under the pandemic unemployment scheme.
It makes no sense.
www.irishtimes.com/business/personal-finance/employers-slow-to-take-up-covid-19-wage-subsidy-scheme-1.4231888
I believe the reasons for this are included in poorly-worded and vague Revenue guidelines to employers attached to the scheme which is putting a lot of them off.
1. " The employer is expected to make best efforts to maintain the employee’s net income as close as possible to normal net income for the duration of the Subsidyperiod. There is no minimum amount that the employer must pay as an additional payment in order to be eligible for the scheme. "
2. " An employer that has been hit by a significant decline in business but has strong cash reserves, that are not required to fund debt, will still qualify for the Scheme but the Government would expect the employer to continue to pay a significant proportion of the employees’ wages. "
The lack of clear guidance on what constitues strong cash reserves or significant propertion of wages leaves an employer open to a later Revenue audit that could require the repayment of subsidies with interest and possible penalties.
An employer is therefore faced with the choice of continuing to pay staff for an indefinite period of time out of cash reserves as well as meeting all the usual costs and outgoings with no income or laying off staff, especially low paid or part-time who could probably claim as much if not more than their usual salary with the flat €350 payment under the pandemic unemployment scheme.
It makes no sense.