Hardship program | Covid 19 regulation - MKY Group Ag

Hardship program in the catering & event industry

More financial aid. What you should definitely consider as a restaurateur or event operator & how you can benefit from the new measures.

An overview of the hardship program. The COVID-19 pandemic is keeping us all busy — this has been happening for 1.5 years now! Personal and economic life was and is partly

! [Hardship Program in the Catering And Event Industry 1] (data:image/svg+xml,% 3csvg%20xmlns=' http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%20252%20252'%3E%3C/svg%3E)immer is still heavily affected by it. Shops, restaurants and bars had to be closed by government decree. Events of a musical or sporting nature, etc. also had to be cancelled or postponed.

The first easing came into force at the end of May 2021 as part of the stabilization policy. But the previous closure of the restaurants, lasting several months, has caused massive financial damage, particularly in the catering and event industry. Negative consequences cannot yet be precisely estimated.

Against this background, the state (federal and cantons) has created a third instrument in addition to short-time work allowance (KAE) and corona compensation (CEE): the so-called hardship program. This program provides partial support for fixed costs, which continued to run continuously during the pandemic despite state-decreed closures or restrictions.

Based on the amended COVID-19 regulation, the following framework conditions apply for the provision of financial assistance:

a) Companies that have been officially closed for at least 40 calendar days since November 1, 2020 no longer have to provide proof of a 40% loss of turnover and are considered a case of hardship almost ex officio.

b) Companies that have recorded sales declines from the beginning of the year (2021) to June 2021 in connection with the measures prescribed by the authorities can now also use the turnover of the last twelve months as a basis of assessment instead of the total annual turnover in 2020.

c) In general, companies that had to be closed as a result of an official instruction have to provide less evidence than so-called “standard hardship cases”.

d) The dividend suspension (or repayment of owner capital contributions and payment of royalties) will be reduced from five to three years and lifted completely as soon as any aid received has been repaid.

e) Cantons can pay amounts of up to 20% of annual turnover and up to CHF 750,000 per company; usually as A-fund payments, which the company does not have to repay.

In the first months of this year, we were able to accompany and support many customers through this extremely demanding economic phase. In particular when preparing and formulating the hardship application for the attention of the competent authorities in the cantons of St. Gallen, Thurgau and Appenzell Ausserrhoden and throughout Switzerland.

In particular, together with numerous peripheral documents and information about the company (e.g. excerpt from the commercial register, etc.), it was necessary to submit the final annual financial statements for fiscal years 2018 and 2019, as well as the provisional annual financial statements for fiscal year 2020. In addition, a 3-year financial plan had to be drawn up. A financial plan for the period 2021 — 2023, including a plan and income statement, as well as a planned balance sheet. Especially in this context, we were able to successfully help our customers in the catering, event and sports sectors thanks to our many years of expertise.

As a result, all hardship requests from our clients were approved and payments made. These amounts made it possible to partially compensate for the losses of the last twelve months and were also able to reduce the long-term consequences of this pandemic piecemeal. Depending on the canton, hardship applications can be submitted to the competent authorities by the end of October 2021, for example. Our established procedure here: Situation analysis — Brief discussion — Preparation of documents — Consultation with the authorities if necessary — Submission of an application — Feedback from the authorities/receipt of the decision — Information to the customer.

Disclaimer: The content of this blog post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. Each individual case should be reviewed individually and we recommend that you seek professional advice for specific questions.