Update to Wage Subsidy scheme gives relief to employers who missed February payroll deadline

After much lobbying from employers and representative bodies Revenue have agreed to amend their definition of which employers can access the COVID-19 Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme which gives a lifeline to those employers who were late filing their February 2020 payroll details.

Initially Revenue were steadfast in their ruling that only those employers who had no outstanding payroll returns at March 15th 2020 could qualify for the scheme.

It became obvious, however, that there was a number of employers who were late filing their returns for February 2020 that had genuine reasons for missing out and were otherwise always on time with their filings and payments.

Revenue will now allow such employers to access the scheme provided:

The employees in question were included on the employer’s payroll on 29 February 2020,
The February 2020 payroll submission was submitted to Revenue before 1 April 2020,
Payroll submissions for all previous months were submitted to Revenue before 15 March 2020.

Any employers that were previously unable to access the Wage Subsidy Scheme and who meet the revised criteria can now apply to be included in the scheme.

Published 28/04/2020

Last updated: 29th April 2020