The Revenue Commissioners recently issued new guidelines in relation to the eligibility of EWSS from 1 July 2021.

The main change announced by Revenue was extending the turnover reference checks to 12 months rather than a 6 month period. This means that businesses whose trade was severely impacted due to government restrictions in the first half of 2021 can trade at higher levels for the second half of 2021 and still avail of the scheme, subject to meeting the scheme conditions which were already in place. 

This adjustment means that a business would be looking at their turnover for the calendar year 2021 in full rather than on a 6 monthly basis. Businesses will need to review their actual monthly turnover for January to June 2021 and projected turnover for the months July to December 2021. The business is expected to experience a 30% reduction in turnover or customer orders due to the pandemic in the period from 1 January to 31 December 2021 compared to 2019 for pay dates on or between 1 July and 31 December 2021. 

Therefore, in order to avail of the EWSS, you will need to provide the following;

  1. Actual monthly turnover details for January to December 2019, 
  2. Actual monthly turnover details for Jan to June 2021 and 
  3. Monthly projections for July to December 2021.

In addition to this, you will be required to complete an online Employer Eligibility Review Form (ERF) through ROS on a monthly basis, by the 15th of the following month. The initial ERF for the June period which will be used to assess eligibility for pay dates from 1 July needs to be completed and submitted online between 21 and 30 July 2021. Through ROS, you will need to provide details of actual monthly vat exclusive turnover or customer order values for 2019, together with the same detail for the first six months of 2021. They will also need to provide details of monthly projections for the remainder of 2021.

On a rolling basis the projections can be updated monthly for the actual turnover figures and a business will be obliged to stop claiming the EWSS at any point where the expected 2021 turnover will exceed 70% of 2019’s turnover. 

Revenue have advised, failure to submit the EWSS Eligibility Review Form that confirms the requisite reduction in turnover of 30% and related declaration will result in suspension of payment of your EWSS claims.

Our tax team are available to discuss EWSS eligibility and applications at any stage, please use the link for contact details:  https://www.robertsnathan.com/member/brendan-murphy/