Commonly owned groups and RSP
Generally, a commonly owned group (group) of businesses is one where each business has the same owners. It does not matter whether those owners have the same proportion of ownership in each business.
A business may also be treated as being in the group if it is part of a larger group of businesses. For example:
- The group has a dominating shareholder or group of shareholders, and the businesses operate together as if they were one.
- The group of businesses involves a complex ownership structure where the overall control is centralised and businesses are in substance one enterprise.
A change to calculating the RSP amount for group members
There was a change to the formula for calculating the amount of an RSP for group members. This change is about the number of employees that group members can claim for. The change applies to all payments available for the 17 August 2021 alert level increase.
If you are part of a group and have already applied for the RSP for 1 or more payments under the 17 August 2021 alert level increase and you believe this change should apply to you, please contact us to inquire about amending your application.
Eligibility for the RSP
Each business or organisation in the group is eligible for RSP if, as well as meeting the other eligibility criteria, they and the group as a whole have experienced a 30% drop in revenue due to the increase in alert levels.
If a member of the group is eligible for the RSP, they will need to calculate their number of full-time employees (FTEs) - up to 50 FTEs.
The member can claim for the employees that regularly work for them. In some groups, most or all employees of the group are employed by one member of the group but may regularly work for another member(s) of the group. In these cases, the member may count an employee of another member of the group as their own employee if that employee regularly works for them.
The following information explains how an employee can be included in an application under these circumstances.
An employee can be considered to 'regularly work' for the member if, in a typical 4-weeks, the employee:
- works at least 2 calendar days for the member each week, or
- works at least 5 calendar days for the member in a single week.
The group member should count the number of calendar days that the employee works for them.
- 2 shifts for the same member of the group in one day counts as only one day (for example, a split shift).
- If the duration of a shift spans multiple calendar days, only the 1st calendar day can be counted.
This calculation is for each group member. If an employee works 2 shifts in 1 calendar day, and each shift is for a separate member, then each member is able to count that same calendar day towards this calculation. A member can count an employee that works a partial day towards the calculation.
There may also be other circumstances where an employee 'regularly works' for the member. For RSP purposes, a member can use any reasonable method to work out whether an employee regularly works for them - based on the actual day-to-day working arrangements that the member has with their workers. The member needs to keep a record of the method they use. We may ask for this record as part of a review of the RSP.
To work out whether an employee that 'regularly works' for the member is either a full-time equivalent worker or a part-time equivalent worker, the member may only count the hours the employee regularly works for them (eg if the employee regularly works 20 or more hours per week for the member they will be a full-time equivalent worker of the member).
If the employee works an irregular number of hours from week to week, the member should use the average number of hours the employee works for them each week to work out whether the employee is a 'full-time equivalent' worker.
Note: The maximum payment cap of 50 full-time employees (FTEs) still applies to each group member (the low revenue cap also applies). All other eligibility criteria still apply.
When a person is an 'employee' for the purposes of the RSP scheme