Covid-19 Wage Subsidy Schemes

Revenue has introduced a new Covid-19 support scheme alongside the Employment Wage Subsidy scheme (EWSS). The Employment Wage Subsidy scheme for Public Health Restrictions (EWSS-PHR) began on 1 February 2022.

 NOTE: All payroll related Covid-19 subsidy schemes have now ended, with the last of them, the extended scheme EWSS-PHR, ending on the 31 May 2022.

You can follow the steps in this handy guide to Disable all employees from Covid-19 subsidy schemes.

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Key information about EWSS

• Registration for the EWSS scheme opens on ROS from 18 August 2020.
• Employers must have a Tax Clearance Certificate with Revenue before being eligible for the scheme.
• From 1 September 2020, the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) replaces the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS).
• TWSS and EWSS will run in parallel from 1 July to 31 August, employees already on TWSS must remain on TWSS until the end of August.  
• The EWSS scheme is expected to continue until 30 April 2022.
• Non-TWSS employers, who have not previously availed of TWSS, will only be eligible to apply for the EWSS.
• No special payment will  be processed - employers will receive a reduction in the liability to Revenue in the month following a payroll submission including employees selected for EWSS.
• Eligible employers may backdate a claim to 1 July 2020 for EWSS payments in respect of new hires and seasonal workers, subject to limited exceptions. 

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Qualifying criteria

You must be able to demonstrate:

• Your business will experience a 30% reduction in turnover or orders between 1 July and 30 April 2022.
• This disruption is caused by COVID-19.

This reduction in turnover or orders is relative to:

• The same period in 2019 where the business was in existence prior to 1 July 2019.
• The date of commencement to 31 December 2021 or;
• where a business commenced after 1 November 2019, the projected turnover or orders.

To ensure you continue to meet the above eligibility criteria, you're required to undertake a review on the last day of every month to ensure you continue to meet the above eligibility criteria.

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Employer PRSI

For eligible employees, Employer PRSI will be charged at 0.5%. Employer PRSI will be recalculated by Revenue on receipt of a payroll submission and the liability to Revenue will be reduced accordingly.

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Subsidy support

The level of subsidy under the new scheme will be simplified, and consist of the following thresholds and rates:

Employee Gross Weekly Wages	Subsidy Payable
Less than €151.50	No subsidy
From €151.50 to €202.99	€151.50
More than €203.00 and less than €1,462.00	€203.00
More than €1,462.00	No subsidy

You can find further information about the scheme from Revenue's website as well as published guidance.

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Processing EWSS for your employees

Before processing EWSS for your employees, you must indicate that the employee has been included in the scheme. There are two methods of updating your employees:

• You can update all employees at once using the new global change process. Read more >
• You can update each employee individually in their employee records, or on their timesheets. Read more >

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Processing Time and Pay for eligible employees

Unlike the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme, EWSS does not require a separate payment to be processed on the timesheet. You process the employee's pay as normal and ensure that the employee has EWSS selected in the Covid-19 Subsidy area. 

 CAUTION: If the employee is in receipt of less than €151.50 or more than €1462.00 per insurable week in the period, then you must uncheck the Covid-19 subsidy checkbox as the employee is not eligible and the Revenue will not refund any value related to that employee.

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Completing your payroll

After saving your timesheets and completing your other normal payroll tasks, you should complete your Payroll Submission to Revenue. When completing a payroll submission that includes employees selected for EWSS, you will see a new field in the submission wizard indicating the number of employees included.

 CAUTION: If you receive a submission error such as: "payslips.[0].otherpayment.[0].paymentcode" is not in valid format, it means that the Revenue are not accepting submissions containing EWSS eligible employees. You can try to complete your submission at a later date.