30.03.2020
ELIGIBILITY FOR THE SCHEME 60:40
If they want to get help under the 60:40 scheme, businesses will need to prove a drop in sales revenue of at least 20% in the month preceding the one in which compensation is submitted compared to the same month in 2019. This was adopted today by the Council of Ministers in the pending Business Aid Decree, which comes retroactively from the announcement of the state of emergency - 13 March 2020.
It was sent to the European Commission to approve the granting of this state aid. Labor Minister Denitsa Sacheva has announced that she will be able to apply tomorrow. The Employment Agency has already published full information on the program (you can get acquainted with it at www.az.government.bg). "We have made the measure as flexible as possible, for example, the employer may not request it for all its employees, but only for some," Sacheva said.
Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has announced that in order to achieve this, the Council of Ministers will vote on a budget update, saying that it requires at least BGN 1.5 billion.
There are 7 sectors that will not receive assistance. They are A, K, O, P, Q, T and U according to the Classification of Economic Activities (NACE.BG-2008). These include agriculture, forestry and fisheries, financial and insurance activities, government, education, human health and social work, household activities as employers; undifferentiated activities of households for the production of goods and services for own consumption; activities of extraterritorial organizations and services.
According to their date of incorporation, companies will demonstrate a decline in revenue over different periods. Those established before March 1, 2019, must have a decrease in sales revenue of at least 20% in the "month preceding the month on which the claim for payment of compensation is filed, compared to the same month of the previous calendar year." I.e. if an application for aid under the 60:40 scheme for March 2020 is submitted in April 2020, the firm will have to prove a decrease of at least 20% compared to March 2019.
Those established after March 1, 2019, must have a decrease in sales revenue of at least 20% "in the month preceding the month on which the claim for payment of compensation is filed, relative to the average January and February earnings of 2020."
However, there are also 14 sectors that will be able to apply to the state to absorb 60 percent of their salaries without proving that their income has decreased. These include retail, transportation, hotel, restaurant, tourism, artists, athletes, etc. They are listed in an annex to the decree. They will not prove a decrease in sales and “employers who have ceased activity carried out on the territory of individual settlements, where by order of a state body anti-epidemic measures were introduced on the grounds of Art. 63 of the Health Act.”
As is already known, the measure is applied only to maintain employment, i.e. so that workers are not made redundant.
Companies that have stopped working in whole or in part, or terminated only in respect of individual employees, may apply for part of the remuneration of staff. It will also benefit those who have entered part-time, whether for part or for the entire enterprise. For them, compensation will be paid in proportion to the time off, but for no more than 4 hours a day.
Compensation will not be paid to employees who have not been employed by the employer before the date of the emergency, nor for workers on temporary disability, pregnancy and childbirth leave, when adopting a child up to 5 years of age or raising a child up to 2 years of age, as well as those for which the company receives financing for salaries and social security contributions from the state budget, from European Structural and Investment Funds or other public funds.
As expected, the decree stipulates that assistance will be available for a maximum of three months.
The 60 percent that the state will give are from January 2020 insurance income.
Here's how it will be determined:
The remainder up to the full amount of the salary is paid by the employer and he must also pay insurance.
The conditions
The first condition for the grant of 60:40 is the employer to carry on business in Bulgaria, which may be a local natural or legal person or a foreign legal person.
The second is that there are no tax liabilities and mandatory social security contributions (within the meaning of Art. 162, para. 2, item 1 of the Tax and Social Insurance Procedure Code) to a state or municipality established by an effective act of a competent authority in respect of which it has not taken any actions for rescheduling, deferral or security.
The third requirement is that the employer is not declared either in bankruptcy or liquidation proceedings.
The next condition is to keep the employment of workers for whom he has been compensated for a period not less than that for which he was paid. nd not to terminate employment contracts of employees on the grounds of Art. 328, para. 1, items 2, 3 and 4 of the Labor Code during the period for which they are compensated.
And the latter is formulated as follows: „Not to have a penal decree or court decision established by a enforceable law, violation of Art. 61, para. 1, Art. 62, para. 1 or 3, Art. 63, para. 1 or 2, Art. 118, Art. 128, Art. 228, para. 3, Art. 245 and Art. 301 - 305 of the Labor Code or Art. 13, para. 1 of the Labor Migration and Labor Mobility Act for a period of 6 months prior to the issuance of the termination order“.
The most important requirement is to submit documents proving a decline in sales revenue.
The procedure
The application will be able to start when the Executive Director of the Employment Agency issues an order to open a procedure for this, and information on the terms and conditions of the application will be published on the website of the Office and on the boards in the Labor Offices.
It will also issue a model of the application for compensation, which may be submitted in paper form, electronically or by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt through a licensed postal operator at the labor office, "serving the territory of employment of employees". "For funding whose payroll is being applied for.
They shall be attached to the application:
Who is eligible for compensation will be decided by a committee with each labor office. It will take 7 days to review the application.
It will verify ex officio at the National Revenue Agency whether the two most important eligibility requirements have been met - whether the revenue has fallen by at least 20% over the relevant period and that the employer owes taxes and insurance. The other conditions will be verified ex officio.
The company will be notified whether or not it is approved within two business days of the commission's ruling.
The compensation will be paid by the NSSI.
