COVID-19 Frequently Asked Questions

Question: 

Should the Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy (“CEWS”) be credited to the Joint Account for employees that are charged to the Joint Account?

Answer:

1. Any CEWS payment received by the Operator for an employee who is chargeable to the Joint Account should be credited to the Joint Account.  Salaries and Wages chargeable to the Joint Account are based on the cash outlay made by the Operator for those Salaries and Wages.  Therefore, any reduction of the cash outlay by the Operator, either through a reduction in salary or through a government subsidy, must be passed through to the Joint Account.
2. Under Clause 301 of the 1988 and 1996 Accounting Procedures and Clause 109(E) of the 2011 Accounting Procedure, any CEWS amount credited to the Joint Account should be excluded from the calculation of variable Overhead.  This provision is not contained in any other Accounting Procedure that has been issued by EASC.  Therefore, the Operator needs to review the vintage of the Accounting Procedure governing the Joint Account to determine if the CEWS payment should be excluded from the calculation of variable Overhead.
3. The Operator may wish to create separate accounts in order to track any CEWS payment received.  This will assist not only for internal accounting and reporting, and audit purposes, but also to ensure the credit is excluded from the variable (percentage) overhead provisions of the Accounting Procedure, if applicable.   

Information on the CEWS  program can be found at the following website:

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/subsidy/emergency-wage-subsidy