Micro, small businesses have until May 8 to apply for wage subsidy program
CEBU CITY, Philippines—Micro and small businesses have until Friday, May 8, to apply for the Small Business Wage Subsidy (SBWS) Program that is implemented through the Social Security System (SSS) to provide a wage subsidy of between P5,000 and P8,000 per month, depending on the regional minimum wage.
In Central Visayas, the wage subsidy is set at P6,000.
The national government came up with a wage subsidy to benefit the affected employees of small businesses to mitigate the impact of the enhanced community quarantine implemented in various areas, including Cebu.
Under the SWBS program, eligible employees will receive a monthly subsidy for two months. However, the employers will have to submit to the SSS their applications on behalf of their affected employees, SSS said in a press release.
SSS started accepting applications for the SWBS program last April 16, 2020.
For their employees to avail of the wage subsidy, businesses have to meet two criteria – the size of business and the impact of the ECQ on their operations.
These companies must not be in the large taxpayer service list of the Bureau of Internal Revenue. Also, businesses should have been forced to stop operations (for those classified as non-essentials) or allowed to operate but only with a skeleton force (for the quasi-essentials.)
For the businesses under the quasi-essentials category, only the employees who were not able to work and did not get paid during the ECQ could receive the wage subsidy.
Qualified employers are also required to input the taxpayer identification number (TIN) of the eligible employees.
The BIR’s e-Registration (eReg) System will accommodate business employers who are categorized as single proprietors and non-corporations up to May 8. After May 8, 2020, the BIR eReg System will return to strictly accommodating corporations only.
Qualified businesses can apply through either of the following methods.
• METHOD 1: My.SSS account (via www.sss.gov.ph). This may be used by all pre-qualified employers who have a My.SSS account on the SSS website. For instructions, visit: https://sites.google.com/dof.g…/small-business-wage-subsidy…
• METHOD 2: E-form submission through secure site (via secure link sent through email). This is only for pre-qualified employers with emails on file with SSS. The instructions have been sent to them.
• METHOD 3: File upload through secure site (Microsoft Excel file upload to sbws.sss.gov.ph). This may be used by all employers pre-qualified for the SBWS program. For instructions, visit: bit.ly/SBWSMethod3pdf. / dcb
Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Cebudailynews. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.
