Covid Restrictions Support Scheme (CRSS)
Qualifying criteria for eligible businesses
The Covid Restrictions Support Scheme (CRSS) was available to businesses that carried on a trade, or trading activities, from a business premises. This included:
- companies
- sole-traders or self-employed individuals
- partnerships
- charities and approved sports bodies (for claim periods after 20 December 2021).
What is an eligible business?
To be eligible, the:
- profits of the trade, or trading activities, of the business should be chargeable to tax under Case I of Schedule D (in the case of charities and approved sports bodies, they would have been so chargeable, but for available tax exemptions)
- business premises should have been located wholly within a geographical region for which COVID-19 restrictions are in operation
- businesses needed to have valid tax clearance to enter the CRSS. They also needed to maintain tax clearance for the duration of the scheme.
Note
Businesses needed to ensure that they had tax clearance from Revenue in order to be eligible for the CRSS.
Qualifying criteria
If you had an eligible business, to qualify for the CRSS you needed to be able to demonstrate that:
- your business operated from a business premises wholly located in a region subject to Government restrictions in the claim period
- because of the Government restrictions, your business prohibited or significantly restricted members of the public from your business premises
- the turnover of your business during the period of restrictions (the claim period) could be no more than 40% (or 25%* as applicable) of the:
- average weekly turnover of the business in 2019
- average weekly turnover in a reference period. This depended on when the business was established in the case of a new business.
- your business complied with obligations in relation to registering and accounting for Value Added Tax (VAT)
- your business intended to resume trade after the Government restrictions are lifted.
* The 40% test applies for claim periods post 20 December 2021.
Next: Webinar on the Covid Restrictions Support Scheme (CRSS)