Companies making redundancies risk losing state support, tax benefits

  • Lusa
  • 23 July 2021

Companies that do not maintain in 2021 the level of employment recorded last October or make redundancies are not allowed to access public support or tax benefits.

Large companies that do not maintain in 2021 the level of employment recorded in October 2020 or make redundancies will have no access to public support or tax benefits and will have to return tax benefits already used.

These conditions are set out in a decree published in the Official Gazette on Friday regulating the extraordinary and transitional regime of incentives to maintain jobs, provided for in the State Budget for 2021 which conditions access to public support (such as credit lines) and tax incentives by large companies with profits in 2020, dependant on the maintenance of jobs.

“Access to public support during 2021, as well as the use of tax incentives in the tax period beginning on or after January 1, 2021, by entities subject to the scheme, will be subject to the maintenance of employment levels,”

If the tax benefit has already been used, the company will have to refund the uncollected tax revenues, plus compensatory interest.

In order to verify the level of employment, employees are considered, as well as independent workers economically dependent on the company.

Excluded from this calculation are workers who have terminated their contracts on their own initiative, as well as those who have died, retired, been dismissed with just cause or had their fixed-term contract terminated.

The employment level is verified ex officio, based on information provided by the Social Security Institute (ISS) to the Tax and Customs Authority (AT) or to the body for the allocation of public support.