Firm told to pay back €2.2m in pandemic wage supports to Revenue

At the TAC, Revenue contended the employer failed to carry out rolling reviews and that it had understated its turnover or sales figures for the relevant time periods. Picture: Laura Hutton/RollingNews.ie

A firm has been ordered to repay over €2.2m in covid wage supports to the Revenue following a ruling by the Tax Appeals Commission (TAC)

The case involved payments under the Employer Wage Subsidy Support (EWSS) scheme which were  wrongly claimed by the unidentified firm from July 2020 to August 2021.

The firm claimed further EWSS payments for September, October, and November of 2021 of  €355,364, but which were withheld by Revenue. Revenue issued the €2.24m assessment after finding the business had failed to show that  its turnover or customer orders had fallen by 30% during the pandemic.

The unnamed firm appealed the assessment but Revenue commissioner Simon Noone ruled the company had applied the wrong comparative revenue test when seeking to justify its EWSS claim. Mr Noone also ruled the employer was not entitled to use figures calculated on a retrospective basis to claim for EWSS payments. 

At the TAC, Revenue contended the employer failed to carry out rolling reviews and that it had understated its turnover or sales figures for the relevant time periods. The firm had lodged revised figures shortly after the appeals process had started. 

In his findings, Mr Noone found that even if the employer had used the correct comparative test that the figures could not be allowed because they were based on a retrospective review of the company's accounts. TAC has confirmed it has been asked to state a case opinion for the High Court in respect of the ruling.