Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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87. To ask the Minister for Finance if State supports are taken into account when assessing eligibility for the employment wage subsidy scheme (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51583/21]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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Section 28B of the Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19) Act 2020 provides for the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) which is an economy-wide enterprise support for eligible businesses. The Finance (Covid-19 and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2021, signed into law on 19 July, provided for the extension of EWSS to 31 December 2021, ensuring that the scheme continues to provide ongoing and necessary employment support for eligible businesses as the economy returns to a full re-opening.   In my Budget Day announcement, I confirmed that the scheme would continue to operate in a graduated form until 30 April 2022.

The EWSS legislation provides that for employers to be eligible for the EWSS, they must be able to demonstrate that their business will experience a 30% reduction in turnover or customer orders for the calendar year 2021 compared to the calendar year 2019 and that this disruption to normal business is caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The employer can self-assess for EWSS eligibility on the basis that there has been at least a 30% reduction in the turnover of the business or customer orders. I have been advised by Revenue that if a reduction in customer orders is the basis to determine eligibility, as a transport operator, the business must demonstrate at least a 30% reduction in the following:

- the volume of online bookings for passenger journeys; or

- the number of passenger journeys; or

- the value of passenger ticket sales.

Where a reduction in turnover is the basis to determine eligibility, when undertaking a review of the potential reduction in turnover, employers need to include all sources of trade income specifically including sales, donations, State funding, etc. This would include income from fares, Free Travel Schemes and potentially NTA funding support. However, the treatment of Government grants and public funding for the purposes of determining a reduction in turnover is dependent on the nature of the grant or funding arrangement. In reviewing their eligibility, employers should consider the specific nature and terms of the funding arrangement having regard to the applicable accounting standards and required recognition treatment of such grants or public funding arrangements.

The EWSS legislation requires that immediately at the end of each month, from the introduction of the scheme in August 2020 onwards, each employer availing of the scheme must carry out a self-review of its business circumstances and if it is manifest to the employer that it no longer meets the eligibility test for qualification for the scheme, then the employer must immediately cease claiming wage subsidy payments.

To assist employers in conducting a monthly review of its continuing eligibility for the scheme, Revenue is providing an EWSS Eligibility Review Form through its Revenue Online Service (ROS). From 21 July 2021, completing and submitting an EWSS Eligibility Review Form to Revenue is necessary to avail of EWSS supports, with details of an employer’s monthly eligibility review check to be submitted by the 15th of the following month. 

Timely submission of the form will provide assurance to both employers and Revenue that subsequent EWSS claims are appropriate and in line with the terms of the scheme. This, together with Revenue’s EWSS ongoing real-time compliance program, will reduce the possibility of employers, inadvertently or incorrectly, claiming EWSS amounts to which they are not entitled and having to subsequently repay those amounts to Revenue.

Any employers who have queries relating to the EWSS eligibility criteria should contact the Revenue office that deals with their tax affairs for assistance.  In addition, detailed information relating to amounts to be included in the calculation of turnover for EWSS purposes is set out in Revenue’s published eligibility guidelines which can be found at: www.revenue.ie/en/employing-people/documents/ewss/ewss-guidelines.pdf.