What are the consequences under the NOW if your wage bill between March and May is lower compared with your wage bill in January this year? This can have a significant negative impact. Be aware of this, as in these times you will not want to find yourself having to pay back the subsidy you received under the NOW scheme retrospectively.
What amount has to be deducted if your wage bill is lower?
If you apply under the NOW scheme (the main condition is a drop in turnover of at least 20%), up to 90% of your payroll costs will be reimbursed by the government. It should be noted that there is a difference between your wage bill and your payroll costs. Payroll costs are approximated by adding the flat-rate percentage of 30% for additional employer’s contributions to your wage bill.
Deduction
Regardless of the level of the subsidy awarded, 90% of the reduced wage bill is deducted retrospectively from the amount to be subsidised if the wage bill between March and May is lower than the wage bill in January. This means that for each euro by which the payroll costs are lower, the employer receives € 0.90 less in subsidy.
Example
An employer has an estimated drop in turnover of 50%. He therefore receives a subsidy of 90% on 50% of his wage bill. If his wage bill in January was € 1,000,000, this results in a total expected subsidy determined under the NOW of € 1,755,000. An advance is paid at a level of 80%: € 1,404,000.
Over the period from March to May the wage bill is € 600,000 lower. This results in the subsidy being reduced by € 702,000. The ultimate amount of the subsidy is therefore (€ 1,755,000 – € 702,000) = € 1,053,000. This means that the advance payment allocated was too high and a repayment has to be made.