Wages Subsidy - Adjustment

[SCA911]

My husbands company is availing of this subsidy. All was explained by company but there is one thing that seems peculiar. The company stated that they would be topping up the payment to bring the net pay of employees in line with Jan & Feb take home pay. They also said there would be a negative adjustment on the payslip as the subsidy was not being taxed and so that take home pay would be in line with previous months take home pay. I understand that Revenue has stated that the subsidy is not being taxed at source for now but that a review of a persons liabilities would take place at the end of the year and if there was a tax liability credits of the individual will be adjusted down in following years to account for this. Am I right in saying that the employers decision to "adjust" pay down at source is essentially the tax liability of the individual employee therefore the employer should be paying revenue this at the time of the review? Otherwise the employee is being hit twice with the tax liability, adjustment by employer and reduced credits by Revenue in future years. There was never any discussion about pay reduction. This adjustment was always declared by employer as an action to ensure take home pay was the same as previous months and went so far as to say that there was not going to be a pay cut. Anyone else I know whose employer availed of the subsidy has had an increase in take home pay and understands that Revenue will be looking for this at the end of the year. Any thoughts?

 

[lughildanach]

Employer should not make any adjustments due to tax liability, unless this is in accordance with tax credit certificate/RPN.

The whole point is that the subsidy is not being taxed at source. If the employer tries to tweak any top-up payments in an attempt to equalise net pay, they could end up creating inequality later on down the line. Its not up to the employer to equalise net payments, especially as these going to be taxed as gross payments later. Are you sure that this is what the employer is doing? Perhaps he should seek clarification.

Is it possible they are talking about changing tax credit certificates from cummulative to week 1 basis?

Is your husband still working? If so, have his hours been reduced? If he is still working, he is entitled to pay for hours worked without deduction, regardless of whether employer is using the subsidy scheme or not.