Covid Support Schemes – important information roundup

There are a number of updates on COVID-19 support schemes for members to be aware of following a meeting of TALC last week. This includes information on the Business Resumption Support Scheme (BRSS), reminders on the timeframe in which a Covid Restriction Support Scheme (CRSS) restart week payment can be claimed, information for employers with outstanding Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) Eligibility Review Forms (ERFs) and the latest update to the EWSS guidelines. The next ERF is due on Wednesday, 15 September. Taxpayers with outstanding tax returns may have their tax clearance withdrawn and this will impact Covid support payments.  

Business Resumption Support Scheme

As part of the information required for registering for the BRSS, details of the reference turnover amount of the trade must be provided, as well as the turnover amount for the relevant business activity for the specified period of 1 September 2020 to 31 August 2021. This information is required as the qualifying criteria requires a business to demonstrate that the turnover amount for the specified period is no more than 25 percent of the reference turnover amount.

A further condition of the BRSS is that the business must not be eligible for support under the CRSS for any week that includes 1 September 2021. This ensures that a business will not be able to make a claim under the BRSS where the business is entitled to make a claim under the CRSS. The fact that the business previously claimed the CRSS does not make a business ineligible for the BRSS, but there is a requirement for BRSS claimants to be actively trading on 1 September 2021. Accordingly, businesses who were not actively trading on 1 September cannot qualify for the BRSS. 

Revenue confirmed that where a business registers for the BRSS, a Revenue caseworker will carry out a review the following day. Once processed, it will take a day for the BRSS ‘tax head’ to appear in the eRepayments system on ROS.

Further information on the qualifying criteria and the information required on registration is included in the BRSS guidelines.

Covid Restrictions Support Schemes

Under the CRSS, businesses have an eight-week timeframe in which claims must be made. Where a business is eligible to claim a restart week payment, the claim must be made no later than eight weeks from the date on which the restrictions cease to apply to the relevant business. This means that the business should have recommenced its activity no later than that date.

Public health measures which took effect from 26 July 2021 provided for the reopening of activities within the hospitality sector. The eight-week period for businesses affected by this easing of public health restrictions expires on 20 September. For more information see the CRSS guidelines.

Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme

We understand that the payment run on 7 September did not include EWSS payments for employers with outstanding ERFs. Revenue confirmed that once the outstanding ERF(s) are uploaded the payments will be released.

The remaining ERF filing dates are as follows:

The guidelines on eligibility for the EWSS from 1 July were recently updated to confirm that the ERF system no longer annualises 2019 figures for businesses which commenced between 1 January and 31 October 2019. The system now compares 2019 actual figures entered with the comparative trading period in 2021. For example, if a business commenced to trade on 1 May 2019, the system will compare May to December 2019 with May to December 2021 when undertaking the eligibility review calculation.

The guidelines also note, that while every effort is made to ensure the system accurately determines eligibility, the EWSS should only be claimed if an employer is eligible, irrespective of the ERF message.

Tax Clearance

Each of the above schemes, and the tax debt warehousing scheme, require the taxpayer to have and maintain tax clearance. Revenue conducted an outreach campaign in recent weeks informing taxpayers at risk of their losing their tax clearance status if outstanding returns were not filed by the time Revenue runs its tax clearance assessment and this in turn will impact COVID-19 support payments.