Welcome What Employers Need To Know to todays webinar Rachel Hynes - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
COVID-19 & Payroll: What you need to know 7th May 2020 COVID-19 & Payroll: Welcome What Employers Need To Know to todays webinar Rachel Hynes Marketing Executive at Thesaurus Software / BrightPay Karen Bennett Paul Byrne Laura
Marketing Executive at Thesaurus Software / BrightPay
Head of Sales & Marketing at Thesaurus Software / BrightPay
Paul Byrne
Managing Director at BrightPay
Laura Murphy
HR Manager & Employment Law Expert
Audrey Mooney
Customer Support Manager
Ruth Kennedy
Principal Officer at Revenue Commissioners
The government has announced a National COVID-19 Income Support Scheme
COVID-19 Income Support Scheme: Temporary Wage Subsidy to help affected companies keep paying their employees Pandemic Unemployment Payment for workers who have lost their jobs Increased Illness Benefit Additional Resource Self-employed – eligible for Pandemic Unemployment Payment
As a result of the recent business closures, many employees have been laid-off. Normally the employee will return to their previous role on the same terms and conditions
An employee’s length of service is not impacted by the layoff Layoff - a temporary measure - the individual is still an employee but not receiving any remuneration Typically, an employee may claim statutory redundancy where a layoff situation lasts for:
4 weeks or more Redundancy - when the employee loses their job permanently due to a business closure / reduction in work 6 weeks in the last 13 weeks
Legislation on claiming redundancy has been changed during COVID-19 Emergency Period: 13 March 2020 to 31 May 2020 Employees who have been laid off during the emergency period are not able to claim redundancy
Employers should give employees notice in writing that they will be put
Consider a temporary layoff clause
the employee to the layoff Best practice is for employees to have a layoff clause in their contract Additional Resource
Employees on layoff will accrue public holidays but not annual leave Try to be flexible in terms of allowing an employee to carry over leave Accrued annual leave remains intact during layoff– employers should not pay employees in lieu
Working hours reduced to 3 days or less – Short time Work Support Employers working short-time continue to accrue annual leave Payment is made in respect of your regular salary for the days you are no longer working Available to employees and the self-employed who have lost their job due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Available to employees and employers who have lost their job on
COVID-19 pandemic Paid at a flat rate of €350 per week for the duration of the pandemic
Students, non-EEA nationals, part-time workers, casual workers Voluntary unpaid leave due to school / childcare closure
Working casually and became fully unemployed Aged 18 – 66 and lost your employment due to COVID-19 You cannot claim if you voluntarily left your employment (except to look after children)
If diagnosed or self-isolating, apply for Illness Benefit: Increased to €350 You cannot claim if you are continuing to get income from your employment Available to employers who may wish to receive financial support so that they can continue paying their employees.
Must be able to demonstrate a minimum 25% decline in turnover Must retain employees on the payroll
Must be unable to pay normal wages and normal outgoings fully Must be experiencing significant negative economic disruption due to COVID-19 Restricted to employees who were
29 February 2020
A payroll submission must have been made to Revenue from 1 February 2020 to 15 March 2020 Operating from 26th March 2020 and expected to last for 12 weeks
Where no submission by 15 March, Revenue will allow access for employers, provided: Employees were included on the payroll on 29 February 2020 February 2020 PSR was submitted to Revenue before 1 April 2020 PSRs for all previous months submitted before 15 March 2020 Transitional Phase: 26 March 2020 to 3 May 2020 Employers received €410 per week per employee on PRSI Class J9 In many cases, this exceeded the employees entitled subsidy amount Revenue - perform a reconciliation to look for any overpayments
Operational Phase: 4 May 2020 onwards Revenue will calculate maximum subsidy and maximum top up Employers are notified to ensure employees get the correct amount Revenue will refund the applicable wage subsidy for eligible employees
€410 per week where the average net weekly pay is less than or equal to €586 The payment is capped at:
€350 where the average net weekly pay is greater than €586 Payments are liable to income tax by way of review at the end of the year by Revenue Employees previously earning up to €586 net per week: 85% subsidy – where the ARNWP does not exceed €412 Up to €350 subsidy – ARNWP of more than €412 but less than €500 70% subsidy (capped at €410) – More than €500 but less than €585
Employees previously earning in excess of €586 net per week: €350 subsidy – employer pays gross salary of up to 60% €205 subsidy – employer pays gross salary between 60% & 80% No subsidy – employer pays gross salary of more than 80%
Employees previously earning over €960 and current gross is reduced Less than 20% – No subsidy is payable Between 20% and 39% – A subsidy
40% or more – A subsidy of up to €350 is available
Employee didn’t receive normal pay: Option to pay the appropriate wage without receiving a subsidy refund Retrospective deletions and resubmissions may be subject to verification, rejection & penalties Period for calculating an employees average weekly earnings: January & February 2020
Ensures that no employee would be better off under the scheme Exception – employer contribution: when added to subsidy amount it should not exceed €350 per week The subsidy will be tapered if the gross pay + subsidy amount exceeds the average net weekly pay
Employer will need to manually download a TWSS file from ROS Revenue Instruction: TWSS File Revenue will provide employers with details of maximum subsidy and maximum top up allowed One-time download – based on January & February PSRs Additional Resource
Must submit PSR on or before pay date to notify Revenue Import TWSS file to automatically update subsidies of all J9 employees
Revenue will refund the subsidy amount that each employee is eligible to receive Seamless import with BrightPay & Thesaurus Payroll Manager Make sure the most recent RPN is used & make submissions in line with payroll frequency Tax & USC refunds – can be repaid by employer & Revenue will refund this amount to the employer Submissions 4 days in advance will not be processed for refund until 4 days before the pay date
If receiving PUP – employee does not need to be ceased on the payroll Re-hired employees qualify for TWSS if their PUP claim is ceased Duplicate support cannot be claimed for an employee from DEASP If receiving both, DEASP will cease Pandemic Unemployment Payment
Although BrightPay & Thesaurus are a desktop solutions, they are very flexible and can facilitate working from home.
Payroll files can be accessed remotely through cloud environments such as Dropbox or Google Drive BrightPay & Thesaurus can be installed on up to 10 different PCs
Allows you to continue to process the payroll as normal Additional Resource Connect is proving to be hugely beneficial and enables full business continuity with secure communications.
Upload documents and resources to distribute to employees Automatic cloud backup – access payroll info anywhere, anytime
Notify employees of important announcements - can be viewed
Business Continuity Voucher: https://www.localenterprise.ie/Portal/response/Business-Continuity-Voucher/Business-Continuity-Voucher.html Employment Rights: https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/dfeb8f-list-of-essential-service-providers-under-new-public-health-guidelin/ Sample Employee Layoff Letter: https://www.thesaurus.ie/Template_Layoff_Letter.docx BrightPay’s COVID-19 Resources Hub: https://www.brightpay.ie/pages/covid-19-resources Working Remotely with BrightPay: https://www.brightpay.ie/guides/BrightPay%20IE%20Covid-19.pdf Working Remotely with Thesaurus Payroll Manager: https://www.brightpay.ie/guides/Thesaurus%20Covid-19.pdf TWSS Operational Phase - ROS Screens (Preview): https://www.thesaurus.ie/docs/2020/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-thesaurus-users/twss-operational- phase-ros-screens-preview/
Paul Byrne
Managing Director at BrightPay
Laura Murphy
HR Manager & Employment Law Expert
Audrey Mooney
Customer Support Manager
Ruth Kennedy
Principal Officer at Revenue Commissioners