Yesterday evening, the government announced that the measures taken on March 15, 2020 will be extended until April 28, 2020. This means that the catering, hairdressing salons, nail studios, etc. must remain closed. Catering with take-away or delivery may remain open.
It is also important that the NOW scheme is most likely to be drawn up on April 6 for applications up to and including May 31, 2020 and that the first (partial) advance of 80% of the requested allowance will probably be paid to employers within 3 weeks. In addition to the compensation (maximum 90%) of the wage sum (in other words, the gross wage), the compensation will also be paid over an additional 30% of the wage sum as compensation for the employer's costs. In previous news items, the government did not mention this, so this should be seen as an additional support from the government. You will receive the subsidy decision within 13 weeks of the application.
But we would like to remind you that you:
may not terminate or apply for einding an employment contract for business economic reasons for the period in which you receive a NOW subsidy.
keep wages of staff the same as much as possible.
make an estimate of the sales decrease in percent of 3 consecutive months during the months March to July 2020 compared to the average quarterly sales of 2019.
make an estimation of a 3-month decline in sales in the period March 1 through July 31, 2020.
must within 24 weeks after the end of the consecutive period of 3 months to request for the determination of subsidy with filing the accompanying information and an auditor's report.
Please know, that above mentioned must be followed to avoid rejection or to pay back the subsidy and to be penalized.