Upcoming Operational Phase for the Temporary COVID-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme

Updated 5 May 2020: Revenue have made the CSV file available in ROS Employer Services under “Request RPN’s”. A new option is available called Download Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme calculation.

Updated 4 May 2020: We have updated our Help Site here with the changes.

With the Operational Phase of the Temporary COVID-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme coming into effect on 4 May 2020, we would like to remind you of the changes that you can expect.

The amount of employees’ wage subsidy and top-up will be calculated differently from 4 May and will no longer use their respective calculation of 70% and 30% of the Average Revenue Net Weekly Pay (ARNWP). Revenue provides information on their website on how you will be required to calculate the subsidy amounts based on the following tiers:

• An ARNWP less than €412
• An ARNWP more than €412, but less than €500
• An ARNWP more than €500, but less than €586
• An ARNWP more than €586, but less than €960
• An ARNWP more than €960

Please make use of the Revenue calculator mentioned below to ensure that your employees are paid the correct subsidy amounts.

Process Overview

Revenue will provide employers with a CSV file, which contains the information required for you to accurately calculate the maximum wage subsidy and the maximum top-up amount above which you will be required to reduce the subsidy amount paid to ensure employees do not earn more than their ARNWP. When the Operational Phase goes live on the 4th of May, Revenue will also provide a calculator on their website. You should use this to calculate the wage subsidy you want to pay your employees if you pay a top-up amount greater than the max top-up amount shown in the CSV.

Once you have determined the wage subsidy and top-up amounts to use for each of your employees, you can simply add the Temporary COVID-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme item with the correct amounts to your employee’s payslips using our Bulk Inputs functionality. More information on how to add this scheme using Bulk Inputs can be found here. Please note that you will only be able to do this for this particular scheme from 4 May 2020.

Revenue Issue with Cessation Dates

Revenue has informed us that there is a known issue for certain submissions made through the Temporary COVID-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme. Submissions which contain PRSI class J9, but also include the cessation date of an employee may lead to refunds being rejected. They are busy investigating and will look to make a fix after the Operational phase of the scheme goes live on 4 May.

For more information on the Temporary COVID-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme please visit the Revenue FAQ or take a look at our previous blog to see how to add it on SimplePay.

We hope that this information proves useful to you. If you have any queries on how the above relates to payroll and the SimplePay system, please feel free to get in touch with our customer support team at support@simplepay.ie.

Keep well. Stay home. Stay safe.

Team SimplePay