Will I qualify for a refund if I continue to pay my staff more than the €203 per week?

Yes, employers who make top up payments over the €203 per week should still qualify for the COVID-19 Refund Scheme.

The employer COVID-19 Refund Scheme is being administered by the Revenue Commissioners and they issued guidelines on how it will work late last week.

What was made clear in these guidelines at the time was that employers who laid staff off would only qualify for the refund scheme if they paid these employees €203 per week and not a cent more.

Since then there has been significant backlash from employers who were willing to top up this payment to staff on the understanding that they would still qualify for the €203 refund.

The Government have since confirmed that employers who make top up payments over the €203 per week will still qualify for the scheme.

They are still working on the updated mechanics of how that will operate and the expectation is that updated guidelines will issue early this week.

 

Published 23/03/2020

Date published 23 Mar 2020

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