Chartered Accountants Ireland recently wrote to Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe TD, highlighting the need to simplify tax compliance on current and future wage supports. The Institute noted the continued importance to businesses of wage supports in 2021 but called for the associated compliance on the supports to be simplified given the fact that rigorous eligibility criteria and checks are already in place.

The Institute’s letter sets out that tax compliance attaching to wage supports requires a substantial amount of time and management by businesses and their accountants. This is in addition to all other tax compliance obligations of a business operating in difficult circumstances due to the disruption caused by COVID-19. The recent changes to the eligibility test for the EWSS will be challenging for businesses and the Institute called for a transitional measure to be put in place to help businesses with a legitimate expectation that they qualified for the support up to March 2021.