Nearly all businesses that received money from the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) last year have complied with Revenue eligibility checks, suggesting very few firms misused the support.
ust 300 out of 66,500 businesses that received €2.9bn in TWSS payments last year have failed to confirm they were eligible for the money.
That 99.5pc compliance rate compares very favourably with the UK’s lax Bounce Back Loan Scheme for Covid-affected businesses – which by some estimates could lose more than half of the £43.5bn it loaned last year to fraud and defaults.
Those companies that have not engaged with Revenue now face a cascade of financial consequences, including penalty tax assessments on the full amount they received, interest payments on the outstanding amount, withholding of tax clearance, and exclusion from all Covid support schemes.
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“These cases are in a case management process whereby, if the requested information is not submitted to Revenue in the short-term, the entire funds received by him or her under the TWSS will be deemed a ‘relevant tax’ in accordance with Section 28 of the Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19) Act 2020 – and will be repayable to Revenue,” a Revenue spokesperson said in a statement to the Irish Independent.
Revenue began compliance checks on TWSS recipients in summer 2020, shortly after the introduction of the scheme during the first lockdown.
Companies using the scheme had to show they had lost 25pc of sales or customer orders as a result of the pandemic. They also had to document that the money received went on employees’ wages.
The compliance exercise finished in May, with just 892 firms having failed to submit the required paperwork by the beginning of the month.
A final warning letter from Revenue, threatening penalties for non-compliance, persuaded another 600 firms to come forward – leaving just 300 refusing to engage. They now face immediate repayment of all subsidies received.
The Revenue is separately pursuing a larger group of about 6,000 TWSS recipients who could owe €77m in subsidy overpayments from last year, but have not yet submitted payroll information to confirm the amounts.
Revenue also wrote to these firms last month, warning that they were at risk of forfeiting all the TWSS money they had received, if they did not provide the requested receipts showing how much they paid their workers.