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As a Canadian employer whose business has been affected by COVID-19, you may be eligible for a subsidy of 75% of employee wages for up to 12 weeks, retroactive from March 15, 2020, to June 6, 2020.
This wage subsidy will enable you to re-hire workers previously laid off as a result of COVID-19, help prevent further job losses, and better position you to resume normal operations following the crisis.
Determine your eligibility for the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS)
To be eligible to receive the wage subsidy, you must:
Eligible employers include:
Public institutions are not eligible for the subsidy. This includes municipalities and local governments, Crown corporations, public universities, colleges, schools and hospitals.
You must determine if your reduced revenue makes you eligible to apply for the wage subsidy in a particular period.
If you determine that you qualify for the CEWS for one claim period, you will automatically qualify for the following claim period.
Calculate your reduction by comparing your eligible revenue for the starting month of the claim period with your baseline revenue. Your baseline revenue is either:
To view the important application dates please visit the government of Canada’s website.
Eligible revenue generally includes revenue earned in Canada from:
Use your normal accounting method when calculating revenue. You can use the cash method or the accrual method, but you must use the same approach throughout.
There are a number of special circumstances, please visit the Government of Canada’s website for more information.
An eligible employee is an individual employed in Canada by you (the eligible employer) during the claim period, except if there was a period of 14 or more consecutive days in that period where they did not receive any pay (eligible remuneration) by you.
Employee eligibility is based on whether the person is employed in Canada, not where they live.
Employees who have been laid off or furloughed can become eligible retroactively, as long as you rehire them and their retroactive pay and status meet the eligibility criteria for the claim period. You must rehire and pay such employees before you include them in your calculation for the subsidy.
Eligible remuneration includes amounts you paid an employee as salary, wages and other taxable benefits, fees, and commissions. These are amounts employers would be required to make payroll deductions on to be remitted to the CRA.
Severance pay and items such as stock option benefits or the personal use of a corporate vehicle are not part of eligible remuneration.
When calculating the wage subsidy, you will need to determine an employee’s baseline remuneration. Baseline remuneration is considered to be the average weekly eligible remuneration paid to an employee during the period of January 1, 2020, to March 15, 2020. However, you may exclude from your calculation any period of seven or more consecutive days for which the employee was not paid.
When you apply for the Canada Employment Wage Subsidy (CEWS), you will be asked to enter amounts such as the number of eligible employees and gross payroll. To get ready, you can determine these amounts and preview your subsidy claim now, based on information you enter. The calculator is a tool to help you estimate the amount of your wage subsidy.
Before you calculate your subsidy, make sure you are eligible to apply.
After you apply for the wage subsidy, your claim will be subject to verification.
The Government of Canada has an interactive calculator on their website to allow you to amount. Use it now.
Beginning April 27, applications will be open for the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy.
The CEWS will be processed at the payroll program (RP) account level, so you will have to file a separate application for each RP account.
For a full list of steps on how to apply visit the Government of Canada website.