The latest developments around the NOW measure for Sustained Employment
23-11-2020
Due to the coronavirus, you may have less or no work for your employees. As result, you will have less turnover or other income (e.g. subsidy income). You can claim NOW subsidy for a substantial compensation of your employees’ wages. In this way, you can continue to pay employees with permanent and temporary contracts. The Employee Insurance Agency (UWV) will provide an 80% advance.
The application periods for NOW 1 and 2 are closed. NOW 3 is currently active as an extension of NOW 1/2 until 1 July 2021 and consists of 3 periods of 3 months each. This means you can apply for 3 months at a time. During the first period (October-December) the minimum limit for your turnover loss percentage will remain 20%. From 1 January 2021 this percentage will be increased to 30%. You can apply for NOW 3 for the months October, November and December retroactively from 16 November until 13 December 2020.
There are some conditions if you want to claim NOW 3, for example you are obliged to stimulate your employees to take retraining or reskilling courses and you are not allowed to pay out bonuses or dividends during the NOW period. Please make sure you will fit all the conditions before applying for NOW 3.
For NOW 1 and NOW 2 companies have received an advance payment of 80% of the amount they applied for. The final settlement is based on the actual loss of turnover. This means advance payment may be supplemented, but if a company has performed above expectations, they may have to pay back (part of the) advance payment. The amount of the NOW subsidy will also be lowered if the total wage bill has decreased during the period for which you applied for.
Start submission | Final submission date Third party statement | Final submission date Auditor’s statement | Final determination | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Total Application: 25k -125k Advance 20k-100k | Total Application > 125.000 Advance >100k | |||
NOW 1 | From 7 October | 24 weeks = 24 March 2021 | 38 weeks = 30 June 2021 | 52 weeks after submission of final application |
NOW 2 | From 16 November Or later in case the revenue period extends to ultimo November | 38 weeks = 3 May 2021 or 17 May 2021 at the latest | 38 weeks = 9 August 2021 or 23 August 2021 at the latest | 52 weeks after submission of final application |
Conditions for final settlement vary depending on the amount of subsidy you applied for:
After submitting the final NOW calculation, there is no longer the possibility to correct this. This is why we advise to withhold the final settlement of the NOW 1 and NOW 2 until the financial year 2020 is closed, to achieve more assurance regarding actual turnover recognition.
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