Calculating EWSS gross pay reference - sales commissions included?

IrishZeus

Hi,

Looking for some advice. My company will be registering for the EWSS in March. I'm operating a student travel agency and due to recent COVID quarantine measures, our business will be hugely affected for the next number of months.


My question is due to the fact that most of my staff are sales consultants and their monthly pay is a Base salary + commissions. I cannot find which reference period/amount we should use for calculating the EWSS subsidy. Should it include an average of the commissions over a number of months? If so, which months are used for reference? Or should it be base salary only? (Important to note that I am keeping all staff on a full-time basis and they will be continuing to sell, albeit it on a much reduced basis)



We were previously on the TWSS for 4 months in 2020, but managed to pivot the business and we successfully came off it. For TWSS, we were given a reference period for salaries (Jan+Feb 2020, if I remember correctly) and subsidy payments were 70% of their gross pay, including their sales commissions for that period.



Can anyone point me to the correct salary reference periods/amounts for the new EWSS scheme? My employees gross pay would be almost 50/50 base/commission, so I want to ensure I maximise the subsidy for each one. I will be trying to top them up as much as the company can possibly afford to.


Thanks,

P.

ari101

Revenue calculate EWSS based on the gross salary submitted in a given pay period.

It is not calculated like TWSS, you register in advance and tag the employees you are claiming for in the payroll software, and you will get issued subsidy based on the following rates (regardless of composition of pay). You can see the value of the subsidy for a given pay period in ROS as soon as the PSR is submitted.

Gross pay per week - Revised subsidy rates
Less than €151.50 - No subsidy applies
€151.50 - €202.99 - €203
€203 - €299.99 - €250
€300 - €399.99 - €300
€400 - €1,462 - €350
Over €1,462 - No subsidy applies

IrishZeus

ari101 wrote: »

Revenue calculate EWSS based on the gross salary submitted in a given pay period.

It is not calculated like TWSS, you register in advance and tag the employees you are claiming for in the payroll software, and you will get issued subsidy based on the following rates (regardless of composition of pay). You can see the value of the subsidy for a given pay period in ROS as soon as the PSR is submitted.

Gross pay per week - Revised subsidy rates
Less than €151.50 - No subsidy applies
€151.50 - €202.99 - €203
€203 - €299.99 - €250
€300 - €399.99 - €300
€400 - €1,462 - €350
Over €1,462 - No subsidy applies

Ari101, thanks a mill. I’ve gotten that far but I am trying to plan cash flow for the next few months, so am trying to check what subsidy will be available.

Are you saying EWSS subsidy could be different for me every month? (As my employees gross would be different each month, based on their commission amounts)

Should I just input their base plus commissions due for that month (as I normally would), and revenue will then calculate the subsidy based on that amount?

(I am aware of all the additional bits and pieces I need to do on the payroll system for the EWSS claim also)

ari101

IrishZeus wrote: »

Are you saying EWSS subsidy could be different for me every month? (As my employees gross would be different each month, based on their commission amounts)

Should I just input their base plus commissions due for that month (as I normally would), and revenue will then calculate the subsidy based on that amount?

Yes, if pay varies each month subsidy could, if the employees move into different brackets. Use 4.3333 multiplier to see what the monthly rates are.

Whatever gross taxable amount is entered will be used by Revenue to calculate the sub, so if you put in base + comms, subsidy will be based on the total.

IrishZeus

Ah it all makes sense now. Thanks again for that Ari!