CHANGES TO NOW REGULATION FOR EMERGENCY PACKAGE 1 AND 2
21/05/2020
In order to protect employment during the corona crisis the NOW salary benefit regulation has been part of the economic emergency package since March.
The following changes take place to the NOW regulation:
- Seasonal companies : in the second emergency package, March becomes the reference month for the wage bill on which the NOW subsidy is based. In the current regulation, the subsidy for an employer increases if he had a higher wage bill in March, April and May than in January. This is taken into account when the subsidy is determined.
- Zero declaration: employers with a 0 wage bill in January 2020, or no wage bill in January 2020 and November 2019, and who do have a wage bill in March 2020, may still qualify for the current NOW 1.0 regulation due to the changes.
- Storage: in the NOW regulation of the second emergency package, the fixed (flat-rate) surcharge is increased from 30 to 40 percent.
- Business acquisitions: companies that have recently been taken over cannot or do not make sufficient use of the NOW. This has been solved for some of the companies by applying the existing provision in the NOW for start-ups in 2019 to 1 February 2020.
- Auditor's report: the auditor's report will be made compulsory for companies that have received an advance (80% of the grant amount granted) of € 100,000 or more. In order to prevent an applicant from receiving a low advance, but nevertheless receiving a subsidy that is (much) higher than € 125,000 requires also an auditor's report. Companies and institutions that have received an advance of less than € 100,000 will themselves have to estimate whether the subsidy will be set at € 125,000 or more, so that they need an auditor's report. If no auditor's report needs to be submitted - a request from a third party confirming the drop in turnover will have to be submitted when requesting a subsidy with an advance above € 20,000 or a determination amount above € 25,000. This may be, for example, an administrative office, financial service provider or branch organization.
- Opening up the period: the application period of the first package is extended from May 31 to June 5.
- Thirteenth month: the UWV filters out the thirteenth month in the policy administration from the final statement of the NOW.
Changes to NOW regulation for only emergency package 2
- Bonuses, treasury shares and dividend: company using of the NOW 2.0 may not make a profit distribution to shareholders, pay bonuses to the board and management or buy back own shares during this year. Bonuses to ordinary employees that are part of the normal remuneration system are allowed.
- Education: employers applying for the NOW are obliged to encourage their employees to take additional training and retraining so that employees can adapt to the new economic situation. Employers make a statement about this when applying for NOW 2.0. To help employers and employees in this respect, the government is allocating 50 million euros for the NL learns through crisis program, where people can follow online training and development advice free of charge from July 2020.
- Business dismissal: in NOW 2.0, the correction to the subsidy for commercial dismissals will continue to apply, but the subsidy will not be further reduced. With the new NOW application, companies state that they consult with unions if they want to apply for business dismissal for more than 20 employees.
This document provides general information on the subject and does not constitute a legal opinion or recommendation. Consulting a specialist is recommended before taking an action. No claim arising from the content of or relating to this document can be asserted against NAZALI.