MORE THAN HALF of employers who availed of the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme last year now owe a repayment to Revenue.

The scheme was available to employers in sectors who predicted their turnover would be down by at least 25% due to the pandemic.

Its aim was to help businesses keep staff on their payroll, but some businesses who did better than they predicted are now facing repayment bills. 

Reconciliation balances are available for employers to review on the Revenue’s Online Service (ROS) from today.

56% of employers who participated in the scheme owe money to be paid back to Revenue, worth a combined total of €224 million. €90 million has already been repaid.

3% are due additional subsidy payments that have a total value of €1.4 million, while 41% have no further balance payable.

Employers have three months until 30 June to finalise their reconciliation information on ROS.

For those who have no balance payable, employers can choose the option to accept the information and their participation in the scheme will be ended.

Employers who owe a repayment can finalise the process by accepting their reconciliation balance. Revenue will then issue a Statement of Account the next day showing the employer’s position.

Revenue has suspended debt collection for VAT and employer PAYE that businesses incurred while their trade was stopped completely or significantly reduced due to Covid-19, a process known as debt warehousing.

Employers who owe a reconciliation balance from the TWSS scheme but who are eligible for debt warehousing can have that balance also warehoused.

For other employers, the reconciliation balance can be paid on ROS, or they can apply for a phased payment arrangement and repay the amount due over an “extended timeline”.

€2.9 billion was paid out to support 664,000 workers across 66,500 employers under the the scheme.

Revenue’s head of Accountant General’s and Strategic Planning Division Brian Boyle said that “in the rare circumstance where an employer believes that the information he or she previously provided is incorrect, and that the reconciliation balance is therefore incorrect, he or she should review the subsidy paid data previously submitted and make any corrections required”.

“This will result in a revised reconciliation balance, which will be immediately available in ROS,” Boyle said.

Most employers should be able to access their reconciliation balance today, but Revenue is still calculating the balance for a small number of employers.

Revenue is to notify those employers when their balance is available.

Concerns were raised at the end of the year on the impact the repayments would have on employers.

Senator Sean Kyne said that it would be a “cruel irony if repaying the support received was the final nail in the coffin for this business”.

On Revenue’s assessment of businesses, Kyne said that “for some it is proving a sobering experience as their hard work and change of direction has meant that the 25% reduction in turnover necessary has been slightly missed and, as a result, Revenue is demanding the return of the temporary wage subsidy funding”. 

Some employers have not yet submitted parts or any of their information to Revenue.

Boyle said that “over the last number of months, we have engaged with the relatively small number of employers who have not submitted any, or all, of their subsidy paid data, requesting them to provide the outstanding information”.

“Where an employer has not submitted any subsidy paid data, the TWSS reconciliation balance, to be repaid to Revenue, will reflect the total amount of subsidy paid to them under the TWSS,” Boyle said.

“My advice to these employers is to immediately look at their TWSS reconciliation balance in ROS to understand the full impact of not submitting the required information,” he said.

“To rectify matters, the employers concerned need to provide the full and accurate subsidy paid data as soon as possible, thereby ensuring that their reconciliation balance is accurate. If the information is not provided, then the total TWSS payment received by them over the course of the scheme, as reflected in the reconciliation balance, is fully repayable to Revenue.”