Revenue ROS RPN Services are down

ROS RPN Services Down - 31 May 2022 10:30AM


Revenue have confirmed that there is a problem with the RPN service and they are currently performing a restart.

Users may not be able to retrieve RPNs during this restart.

Normal services are expected to be restored in the next 30 minutes




Changes to EWSS for businesses directly impacted by the December restrictions

The Government announced last Friday that there would be some changes to the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) for businesses that were directly impacted by the public health restrictions introduced in December 2021.


Essentially the Government have decided to extend the payment of the enhanced EWSS rates to these businesses for an extra month (February) and continue some form of payment until 31st May.


More information can be found at


https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/0fc0d-government-announces-that-most-of-the-public-health-measures-currently-in-place-can-be-removed/#supports


and


https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/7d402-minister-donohoe-announces-changes-to-economic-supports-for-businesses-most-impacted-by-recent-public-health-restrictions/


We will be working closely with Revenue over the coming days to tease out exactly how these changes will be implemented, and we will be releasing a software update in due course to facilitate the new rates.


In the meantime I would like to cover some of the main aspects of the changes as we currently understand them – although everything is subject to clarification at this point;

1) We have prepared a new EWSS Rates Card showing the new rates here>>

2) We will be holding a Webinar at 11AM on Tuesday 1st February to discuss the changes in more detail. You can register for this webinar free of charge at https://www.collsoft.ie/Events


3) The extended EWSS rates will only apply to businesses that were directly impacted by the public health restrictions introduced in December 2021. In the main we would expect this to mean any business whose normal trading hours were effected by the 8PM closure such as bars, cafés, pubs, night clubs or venues where the numbers were restricted etc. We expect the Revenue guidance to clarify this shortly.


4) Impacted businesses will continue to receive EWSS at the current enhanced rates for the month of February and will be entitled to claim EWSS until 31st May as they fully reopen and emerge from the restrictions. Please see the attached EWSS rates card for a full schedule of the rates available between now and 31st May.


5) All employers on EWSS will start paying the full rate of Employer’s PRSI from 1st March regardless of whether or not they were impacted by the December restrictions.


6) Businesses who were not directly impacted by the December restrictions would continue on the current schedule of EWSS rates which will be reduced on 1st February and then again on 1st March (see attached EWSS Rates Schedule), and will see their EWSS payments end on 30th April. Again, please refer to the attached EWSS rates card for a full schedule of the rates payable between February and 30th April.


7) We are not yet sure if businesses where employees were required to go into self isolation will be considered by Revenue to have been “directly impacted by the public health restrictions” and therefore eligible for the extended payments – we are following this up with Revenue.


8) There may be some businesses where only some employees were impacted by the December restrictions. We expect that in these cases the employer would be able to claim the new rates for those employees, but claim the current rates for the other employees – i.e. an employer could be on both sets of rates.


9) It is unlikely that Revenue will have their systems ready on the 1st February to facilitate these new rates, therefore all employers will see their payments reduced until such time that Revenue update their systems. Therefore employers who are eligible to claim the new rates will likely have to resubmit some of their February Payrolls in order to receive the extra payments. We will be releasing an update to our Payroll Software that will facilitate this once Revenue are ready, and we will guide you through the process. Revenue will then pay you the difference between what you are entitled to under the new rates, and what they initially paid you under the reduced rates.