Corona crisis: Temporary Emergency Bridging Measure NOW [1]
- What is NOW?
- Introduction to NOW
- Due to the coronavirus, you have less or no work for your employees and to maintain the sustained employment, you can claim NOW for a substantial compensation for their wages. The Employee Insurance Agency (UWV) will pay you an advance. You can apply for compensation of wages for employees with a permanent or fixed contract as well as for employees with a flexible contract. You can find more information on which employees you can apply for on the government’s website (in Dutch).
- Different periods of NOW
- For now there are 3 periods. And NOW1 and NOW2 have been closed. At this moment you can apply for the Now3.
- NOW3 (in Dutch) is an extension of NOW until 1 July 2021 and consists of 3 periods for 3 months each. This means you can apply for 3 months at a time. The application for NOW 3 for the months from January through March starts from 15 February. This is the 4th application period (in Dutch). The limit for your turnover loss percentage will remain 20%.
- How to apply?
- General information about NOW3
- NOW3 starts from October 1, 2020 to July, 2021.
- The NOW has been extended by 9 months from October 1, 2021 until July 1, 2021. NOW3 has 3 periods:
- 1: from October 1, 2020 to January 1, 2021 (= 3e UWV application period)
- 2: from January 1 to April 1, 2021 (= 4e UWV application period)
- 3: from April 1 to July 1, 2021 (= 5e UWV application period)
- For each period, an employer can decide whether or not to submit an application. Even if an employer has not made a claim on NOW 1 or 2, the employer can make use of NOW 3.
- The period for applying for NOW3.2 (January-March period) is open until March 14, 2021.
- Conditions for applying NOW3
- You expect to lose at least 20% turnover over the period you apply for. You can use the Dutch-language calculation tool to help you calculate your turnover loss.
- Subsidiaries that suffer a turnover loss of 20% or more can apply even if the business group’s total turnover loss is below this threshold. They must of course fulfil all general requirements and those for subsidiaries (see below). They should also be a legal entity.
- You pay your employees in full (100%).
- You must use this compensation to pay wage costs, employer’s contributions, holiday allowance, pension contributions and the like.
- The surcharge for the accrual of among others holiday allowance, pension contributions and other employer’s contributions will be 40%.
- You must inform your employees or works council if you have been granted this compensation.
- You are obliged to stimulate your employees to take retraining or reskilling courses.
- You must help employees who face dismissal to find another job. Employers can find several options through the Social Package。
- You are not allowed to pay out bonuses or dividend and you may not buy (back) your own shares.
- You have to keep verifiable records of all information of relevance. You must be able to make these records available until 5 years after this compensation has been granted.
- The employer must submit a payroll tax return under the 1964 Wage Tax Act at the prescribed times.
- You must notify UWV of anything that happens that may affect a decision to change, repeal or determine the compensation.
- After your subsidy period, you must report your final turnover loss, accompanied by an auditor’s report.
- If you want to apply for NOW it makes no difference whether or not you applied for NOW before. If you have applied before, the periods for turnover loss must be consecutive. If you apply for the first time, the period for turnover loss can start at any 1st of the month within the period you apply for. If for instance, you want to apply for the 1st time for the period January through March 2021 (4th period of NOW), the period of turnover loss you apply for can start on 1 January, 1 February or 1 March.
- You will need to submit a statement from an accountant for claims that exceed €125,000 and for advances that exceed €100,000.
[1] https://business.gov.nl/subsidy/corona-crisis-temporary-emergency-measure-now/
https://www.uwv.nl/werkgevers/overige-onderwerpen/now/index.aspx