As a result of the introduction of Level 5 restrictions, the Government have announced further improvements to the various business supports, including an improvement to the Covid Restrictions Support Scheme (CRSS) announced recently.

A summary of the various changes are as follows:

CRSS

The Covid Restrictions Support Scheme (CRSS) was introduced in the Budget last week applying to specific sectors severely affected by Covid-19. A summary of the relevant conditions are available here.

In order to allow a greater number of businesses to access this valuable new support, the limit in terms of the level of turnover has now increased from 20% to 25%. This means that, where as a result of the restrictions a business has been required to temporarily shut their premises or operate at significantly reduced levels, with the result that turnover for that restricted period will be no more than 25% (previously 20%) of the average weekly turnover for a period equal to the same number of weeks in 2019 (or using 2020 turnover figures for new businesses), that business will qualify under the scheme. This is a very welcome enhancement to the scheme. 

Revenue’s formal guidelines on the CRSS scheme have been published and can be accessed here: https://www.revenue.ie/en/corporate/press-office/budget-information/2021/crss-guidelines.pdf. 

The registration process for the scheme is now live in ROS and can be accessed via the ‘Manage Tax Registrations’ screen.

EWSS

The Employee Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) is aimed at encouraging Employers to retail staff on their payroll and is available to businesses who experience a 30% reduction in turnover or customer orders between 1st July 2020 and 31st December 2020. It has also been announced that the EWSS payment dates are to be brought forward and there are new rates of payment to specifically to align to the new payments under the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) scheme. As a result, the revised payment amounts under EWSS are as follows:

PUP

Finally, the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) which applies to individuals who have been temporarily laid off from their employment as a result of Covid-19, has also been amended with the addition of a new rate of €350 for those who were earning in excess of €400 per week. The revised payment amounts are as follows:

Contact Us:

To discuss how your business can avail of the above supports, contact us on (090) 6480600.