Revenue announces access to TWSS for certain employers who missed 15 March payroll deadline

Today (24/04/2020) Revenue announced that it will allow certain employers who hadn’t fulfilled their PAYE reporting obligations for February 2020 by 15 March 2020, to access the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS).

Revenue has considered representations from and on behalf of employers who have not met the reporting conditions and are therefore unable to access the Scheme.

Having regard to the overarching ambition of the TWSS to maintain links between employers and employees to the greatest extent possible and to the generally tax compliant position of these employers, Revenue has allowed such employers access the Scheme provided:

• The employees in question were included on the employer’s payroll on 29 February 2020.
• The February 2020 payroll submission was submitted to Revenue before 1 April 2020.
• Payroll submissions for all previous months were submitted to Revenue before 15 March 2020.

Any employers that were previously unable to access the TWSS and who meet the revised criteria are now included in the Scheme. Where they wish to avail of TWSS payments they should ensure eligible employees are set to J9 PRSI class on future payroll submissions.

Employees who were laid off after 29 February 2020 may be taken back onto the payroll for the purposes of the Scheme. It is important that employees receiving COVID-19 related Pandemic Unemployment Payments (PUP) from the Department of Employment and Social Protection (DEASP), who are subsequently rehired by their employer to avail of the TWSS payment cease their PUP claim. Revenue and DEASP are sharing information to identify duplicate payments across both schemes.

Further information in relation to today’s announcement can be found in TWSS - extended deadline  in relation to February Payroll Submissions.

The latest statistical update on the scheme.