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Employers need to act now to comply with new EWSS Eligibility Review criteria

Revenue recently issued a press release and Guidelines on EWSS eligibility from 1 July 2021. There are changes to the assessment period used to determine eligibility for pay dates between 1 July and 31 December 2021. Crucially employers must complete a monthly EWSS Eligibility Review Form to avail of EWSS supports.

New eligibility criteria to claim EWSS

An employer must be able to demonstrate to the satisfaction of Revenue that their business is expected to experience a 30% reduction in turnover or customer orders and that this disruption to normal operations is caused by Covid-19. For pay dates on or between 1 July and 31 December 2021 the comparative periods for assessing this reduction are as follows:

Requirement to complete an Employer Eligibility Review Form (ERF)

Employers will be required to complete an online Employer Eligibility Review Form (ERF) through ROS on a monthly basis. The ERF consists of a declaration and an input of data pertaining to actual monthly VAT exclusive turnover or customers order values for 2019 along with actual and projected details for 2021 for all relevant businesses.

The initial ERF for the June period, which will be used to assess eligibility for pay dates from 1 July 2021, will need to be completed and submitted online between 21 and 30 July 2021.

Thereafter, the ERF must be submitted by the 15th of the following month and should be updated with details of the actual results for the previous month along with reviewing projections to ensure they remain valid.

The submission of data through the ERF will allow Revenue to undertake a systematic check to determine adherence to the 30% reduction test.

Employers should retain their evidence/basis for entering and remaining in the scheme for potential review by Revenue at a future date.

What happens if the ERF is not completed, or the ERF needs to be amended?

Should an employer fail to complete and submit the EWSS Eligibility Review Form, this will result in the suspension by Revenue of EWSS subsidy payments.

Where actual turnover/customer order data has been inputted, this cannot be altered online via the ERF once submitted. If an error has occurred, the employer should contact Revenue using My Enquiries for corrections to be made.

As projected turnover/customer orders are required to be reviewed to ensure they remain valid, such data may be altered online via the ERF. Revenue expects assumptions which underpin the projections to be reliable and reflect the operation conditions of the business.

EWSS subsidy rates

The current subsidy rates will continue to apply to EWSS payments for payroll submissions with pay dates between 1 July to 30 September 2021. Updates on the rates payable from 1 October 2021 are promised in good time in advance of this date.

Revenue is also reminding employers that the reduced rate of employer’s PRSI of 0.5 percent continues to apply to wages paid that are eligible for an EWSS subsidy payment.

Qualifying childcare businesses

Childcare businesses, registered in accordance with Section 58C of the Child Care Act 1991, are included in the EWSS. There is no requirement for such childcare businesses to meet the turnover test, but the other EWSS eligibility criteria such as registration and tax clearance must be met to access or continue to access payments under the scheme.

For more information see the Guidelines on eligibility for the EWSS from 1 July 2021.

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