Following our news item from yesterday evening, we would like to give you further explanation and information about the following measures:
1) Emergency fund Corona
2) Deferral of payment to the tax authorities and reduction of provisional assessment
3) Broadening BBZ benefit
1. Emergency fund Corona
The government has decided to provide better and easier support to entrepreneurs with staff. For this, they withdrew the earlier working time reduction scheme and created the Corona Emergency Fund. SO YOU CAN DETERMINE WHETHER YOUR COMPANY STAYS OPEN OR NOT.
The starting point is that companies that have a decline in their turnover from 1 March 2020 can use this fund. Condition is:
The employer may NOT apply for a dismissal because of company economic reasons
The employer is obliged to continue to pay 100% of the wages to the employee
Applicant expects a turnover loss of at least 20%
It is important that you meet all conditions.
Explanation
With regard to the first condition, it seems clear that the government means that an application may not be made to the UWV for dismissal for company economic reasons. As far as we understand, this would also mean that you as an employer may not take the initiative to terminate the employment contract. We therefore advise you not to sign a settlement agreement with employees for company economic reasons, because the employer must indicate that the employment will be terminated on his own initiative. This is in contrast to the measure of reduction time working in which no requirement was laid down here with regard to dismissal. Please take this into account, so that you will not be able to apply for this fund in the future.
With regard to the second condition, we would also like to draw your attention to employees who are also on-call workers. The Corona emergency fund also applies to these employees. As you know, from 1 January 2020, every employee who does not work a fixed number of hours and who has been employed by the employer for 12 months must make an offer for a contract with a fixed number of hours. If you have not done this, we advise you to do so. Because since on-call workers know that they are entitled to continued payment of wages, you will have to demonstrate that if you do not pay wages, it is because the employee has rejected your offer for fixed hours.
With regard to the third condition, it seems obvious to us that you can have this expectation and that this is sufficient.
Amount of compensation
The amount of the wage costs allowance depends on the drop in turnover, up to 90% of the gross wages. Below are some examples of how the relationship between the decrease in turnover and the amount of the allowance works out:
if 100% of the turnover is lost, the allowance amounts to 90% of the salary of an employer;
if 50% of the turnover is lost, the allowance amounts to 45% of the salary of an employer;
if 25% of the turnover is lost, the allowance will amount to 22.5% of the employer's salary.
The allowance is a percentage of the gross wage. This means, for example, 90% of the gross wages and not also of the employer's social security contributions, which normally amounts to approximately 25% of the gross wage.
So example:
Gross wages are € 2000.00
Employer's social security charges € 500.00
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Total wage costs € 2,500.00
Allowance 90% of gross wages € 1,800.00
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Costs employer after compensation € 700.00
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So keep this possible outcome in mind if you decide whether or not to close.
Size to be determined
The conditions state that an auditor's report is required when a certain amount of the allowance is requested. It is not clear exactly what this means, as soon as it becomes clear you will hear from us.
It is not clear how the application should be made and when this is possible. The government is busy making this clear within a few days. When the time comes, A&T Partners will be able to take care of this for you. The contact person will contact you as soon as more is known about the application for this scheme.
2. Postponement of payment to the tax authorities and reduction of provisional assessment
Postponement
A second measure is that all entrepreneurs affected by the corona situation can receive deferment of payment for 3 months as we informed you yesterday.
We believe that we will apply for this for all entrepreneurs on Friday. If there are special cases where postponement would not be possible, we will contact you about this.
If you believe that this is not necessary, we request that you notify us by e-mail by tomorrow Thursday 19 March at the latest.
Decrease provisional assessment
If you want a reduction of your provisional income tax or corporate tax assessment, please e-mail your contact person and indicate how much you want to reduce.
3. Broadening BBZ benefit
We also refer you to our message from last night. There is no new information at this time. Nor about how to apply for an advance.
As soon as we have information about this, you will hear from us.