Jeremy Tauri is an associate at Plus Chartered Accountants.
Some business who claimed the wage subsidy could get a nasty surprise if they are ever subject to an audit.
The subsidy scheme has been a lifesaver for many businesses across the economy, first for 12 weeks for businesses with revenue down 30 per cent and then for eight weeks
if revenue was down 40 per cent.
The process was easy and pretty straightforward for most who claimed. You put in your application and you got the money paid out. But in the declarations, if you look a little deeper, is the requirement from the Ministry of Social Development that businesses applying already have considered other ways of getting through, such as talking to the bank or dipping into their reserves.
That means, on the face of it, many big businesses with substantial cash in the bank and investments should not have accepted more government money to stay afloat.
Generally, the ministry isn't going to ring every business that applied and ask whether they asked a bank for a loan first. And you're not going to be asked to repay your subsidy if you might have had the option of borrowing some high-interest money on a loan that would have put you out of business further down the track.
