Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

173. To ask the Minister for Finance if a refusal of the temporary wage subsidy scheme and employment wage subsidy scheme can be appealed to the Revenue Commissioners and also to the Revenue Appeals Commissioners; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5096/21]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) was legislated for in section 28 of the Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19) Act 2020. The scheme was an emergency measure to deal with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy.

The key eligibility criteria for the scheme are that the business is suffering significant negative economic impact due to the pandemic, specifically the employer must demonstrate to Revenue’s satisfaction that, by reason of the Covid-19 pandemic and the consequent disruption to business, the employer’s turnover or business orders will be reduced by at least 25% for the period from 14 March 2020 to 30 June 2020; the employees in respect of whom the wage subsidy is claimed were included on the employer’s payroll on 29 February 2020; and the February 2020 payroll submissions were submitted by the employer to Revenue before, in general, 15 March 2020 but recently extended, by concession, to 1 April 2020.

The Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) was legislated for under the Financial Provisions (Covid-19) (No. 2) Act 2020. The scheme is an emergency measure to deal with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy and to deliver an enterprise support to employers based on business eligibility delivering a per-head subsidy on a flat rate basis.

As regards eligibility for the scheme, an employer must be able to demonstrate that his or her business will experience a 30% reduction in turnover or orders between 1 January and 30 June 2021, by reference to the corresponding period in 2019, as a result of business disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Additionally, the employer must have a tax clearance certificate to be eligible to join the EWSS and must continue to meet the requirements for tax clearance throughout the scheme.

The operation of both the TWSS and EWSS schemes relies on employers to determine their own eligibility. Satisfaction of the eligibility criteria is fundamentally a question of fact. Accordingly, there is no formal appeal mechanism as such provided in relation to this in the legislation. However, in the absence of such a mechanism, Revenue has taken a reasonable and pragmatic approach to the issue of disputes whereby, via their customer complaints procedures, aggrieved businesses can engage with Revenue on the matter by providing supporting evidence and submissions setting out their rationale for inclusion in the TWSS or EWSS as appropriate.

In the interests of completeness, I should point out that the legislation does provide that certain ‘right of appeal’ provisions contained in Part 40A of the Taxes Consolidated Act, 1997 shall, in so far as they are applicable, apply where an assessment is raised by Revenue for the collection and recovery of relevant tax related to the TWSS and EWSS.