Updated 11 November 2020

COVID-19 has created an unprecedented health, social and economic environment worldwide. We know this is a time of great upheaval and worry for many businesses, so we have compiled a summary of the financial measures in place today to alleviate some of the financial burden for businesses.

Since March 2020, the financial assistance available has been constantly updated so it is important to ensure you check the latest available information.

Employer Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS)

The Employer Wage Subsidy Scheme is of critical importance to a lot of employers. There have been many versions of the Scheme since March 2020.  In simple terms, the Scheme is:

• A wage subsidy to fund part of the employee’s net pay
• Available to all commercial businesses impacted by COVID-19
• The Government will pay the subsidy to employers.

https://www.revenue.ie/en/employing-people/ewss/index.aspx

Tax warehousing

The Government have introduced a scheme for businesses and others to “warehouse” tax debt and defer payment.  The detail can be found here:

https://www.revenue.ie/en/corporate/communications/documents/debt-warehousing-reduced-interest-measures.pdf

Other taxation Measures

The Revenue have announced a number of measures to assist businesses and taxpayers.  The latest update from Revenue can be found here:

https://revenue.ie/en/corporate/communications/covid19/index.aspx

Revenue have announced other measures/provided guidance in a number of very specific areas, including:

• Benefit in kind matters
• Refund of health care insurance premiums
• Real time foreign tax credit for restricted stock unit cases
• Share schemes filing obligations
• Special assignee relief programme (SARP)
• Trans-border worker’s relief
• PAYE dispensation applications
• Foreign employments – operation of PAYE
• Multi State workers
• PAYE exclusion order – Irish contract of employment
• Residence rules – force majeure circumstances
• Corporation tax and presence in the State or outside the State resulting from COVID-19– related travel restrictions
• Research and development (R&D)
• Tax credits
• Exemption in respect of retraining costs as part of redundancy package
• Child care services relief
• Close company surcharges
• Scholarship exemption
• Exchange of information
• Section 482 buildings and gardens reopening
• Capital acquisitions tax business relief

Full details are here:

https://revenue.ie/en/corporate/communications/covid19/compliance-with-certain-reporting-and-filing-obligations.aspx

Government supports for businesses

The Government have a wide range of supports for businesses impacted by COVID-19.  The supports are constantly changing during the pandemic.  We recommend the following Government website as the best source of information on what is currently available.

https://dbei.gov.ie/en/What-We-Do/Supports-for-SMEs/COVID-19-supports/#

We are here to help

We understand this will be a difficult time for businesses, and we are here to help. If you wish to discuss any of the measures outlined above or how the COVID-19 crisis is affecting your business, please contact your Twomey Moran adviser. Click here for our contact details.

We hope that you and yours are safe and well during these difficult times.