Revenue eBrief No. 097/21

10 May 2021

Payment of Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) liabilities by employers for self-assessed employees and proprietary directors

Revenue has previously confirmed that it is facilitating employers who wish to pay the 2020 income tax and Universal Social Charge (USC) liabilities of their employees arising from the Temporary Wages Subsidy Scheme (TWSS).

Should an employer wish to pay these liabilities on behalf of their employees, on an exceptional, once-off basis and subject to certain conditions, Revenue will not apply the Benefit-in-Kind (BIK) rules that would usually apply where employers make payments of this nature on behalf of their employees. 

The purpose of this eBrief is to advise that the relevant pages of the Revenue website have been updated to  provide the following clarifications in relation to the concessional BIK treatment and TWSS debts:

• To facilitate employers who wish to make good their employees' liabilities and ensure they have the fullest information available following the TWSS Reconciliation process, the concessional treatment is extended to run until end of September 2021. 
• The concession also applies where an employer pays the tax and USC liabilities of an employee who is a self-assessed taxpayer or, in joint assessed cases, if the employee's spouse is self-assessed.
• The concession also applies where an employer pays the tax and USC liabilities of a proprietary director(s) in the company, provided that the employer pays the TWSS related liabilities of all employees in the company.

Further information regarding offsets of direct temporary wage subsidy payments is also provided.

Further details on the TWSS scheme as it applies to employees are available on the Revenue website.