Employer Notice - Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) 30 June 2020

RMcH states: all the wages subsidy & the e350 are both taxable, (your tax credits are utilised), the taxes will be calculated at the end of the tax year, however to allievate the cashflow pain, the revenue will operate you tax credits on a week 1 basis (not cumulative as is usual) from here on till the end of December 2020.

Extension of the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) to end August 2020 and update on a range of developments under the Scheme

The Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) came into effect on 26 March 2020 initially to run for a 12-week period up to the week ending 18 June. The Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform announced on 5 June 2020 that the operation of the TWSS is extended to 31 August 2020. Revenue published an eBrief (Link) on 22 June 2020 that deals with the Scheme’s extension and provides updates on recent, and planned, developments. These developments include:

1.       The bulk issue of Week 1 basis Revenue Payroll Notifications (RPNs) to employers in respect of employees in receipt of subsidies under the TWSS

TWSS payments made to employees are liable to income tax and Universal Social Charge (USC), while the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) is liable to income tax. However, the TWSS payment and the PUP are not being taxed in real-time through the PAYE system and instead will be calculated as part of the employee End of Year review. With the continuation of the TWSS to the end of August 2020, to mitigate the possible impact on the employee End of Year review, Revenue will place all employees that received payments under either the TWSS or the PUP on a Week 1 basis.

The relevant Revenue Payroll Notifications (RPNs) are available in ROS to employers, whose employees are impacted, from 21 June 2020 and employers are obliged to operate on the basis of this, the most up-to-date RPN. Any queries can be referred via MyEnquiries. Further information will be available on the Revenue website.

2.       New facility in MyAccount for employees to look up how much wage subsidy their employer has reported in payroll submissions

Details of TWSS subsidy payments being made to employers on behalf of employees are now

viewable in each employee’s Revenue record, which can be accessed via myAccount. Through this facility, employees can see whether their employer is participating in the TWSS and being refunded a wage subsidy on their behalf.

3.       New facility for apprentices and employers to participate in the TWSS where an apprentice returns to work

This change will accommodate apprentices returning to work who, in February 2020, were on an apprenticeship education and training programme facilitated by Solas and were not on their main employer’s payroll in February 2020. Employers should log on to ROS MyEnquiries, click ADD “A

New Enquiry” and select the category “Covid-19: Temporary Wage Subsidy”, Subcategory: “TWSS -

Apprentices”. Revenue will manually calculate a net weekly pay amount for each employee

concerned and will create a revised ‘CSV file’ for the employer.

4.       Details of the start of Revenue’s TWSS Compliance Check programme.

Revenue will shortly be contacting all employers who have participated in the TWSS to ensure that the scheme is operating correctly and will seek certain documentary evidence from employers to verify eligibility and to validate that TWSS payments have been passed on to its employees. The programme is expected to last several months.

See also Revenue Press Release of 23 June 2020 (Link).