Resurgence Support Payment explained

Tēnā koutou,

The Resurgence Support Payment (RSP) is now open.

Please note: The Inland Revenue Department's (IRD) online services will be offline from 5pm Friday 26 February to 8am Monday 1 March. You will not be able to apply for RSP during this 2.5-day period. You will be able to apply in myIR after 8am Monday 1 March.

If your business experienced a 30% drop or more in revenue over a seven-day period following the Alert Level increase on Monday 15 February, you could be eligible for the RSP.

Sole traders who were unable to perform a service due to the lockdown and therefore unable to invoice their clients can also apply, provided they meet the criteria.

The 30% or more revenue drop must be compared to a typical seven days within the six weeks prior to the 15 February. The time frame for this particular period would be from 4 January 2021 to 14 February 2021. In applying the revenue drop test there are special rules for businesses that receive revenue on a seasonal basis. More detail on this is available on IRD’s website.

For example
Your business turned over $2000 during a seven-day period from Wednesday 13 January to Wednesday 20 January. This was a typical amount of turnover for the business over a seven-day period.

As a result of the Alert Level rise during the week of Monday 15 February to Sunday 21 February, you only turned over $1200 in that week.

Due to experiencing a 40% drop (30%+) in revenue, you could be eligible for the RSP provided that you meet the other criteria.

The amount you may be eligible for:

Generally, sole traders may receive a payment of up to $1,900.

For businesses and organisations, the maximum payment is $21,500.

This is made up of:

$1500 baseline and $400 per Full-time Employee (FTE). You can apply for up to a maximum of 50 FTE.

• Employees working up to 20 hours per week are considered part time (0.6 FTE)
• Employees working 20 hours or more per week are considered fulltime (1.0 FTE)

For example
You have a business with 3 FTE.

You’ve experienced a 30% or more decline in revenue by comparing a 7-day period pre–Alert Level Rise, and a 7-day period at the raised Alert Level (as in the example above).

You could be eligible to receive $2700 = ($1500 (baseline payment) + $400 (FTE) + $400 (FTE) + $400 (FTE)).

However, if your business has a ‘low revenue’ your payment will be capped at four times (4x) the amount your revenue has dropped over the 7-day raised Alert Level period. 

So, if your business from the example above with 3FTEs has a revenue decline of $500, you would receive an RSP payment of $2000 (4 x $500).

Further details including eligibility criteria, the application process, calculating entitlements and tax treatment of RSP payments are available on IRD's website www.ird.govt.nz/rsp.

Applications for the current activation of RSP close at the end of the day on Monday 22 March 2021.

Applying online

Step 1.
Visit ird.govt.nz and click myIR login on the right-hand side of the screen

Step 2.
Type in your details and press ‘Login’.

Step 3.
Click ‘more’ under the ‘I want to…’ box on the right-hand side of the screen.

Step 4.
Under COVID-19 support, three blocks down the page, click on ‘Apply for Resurgence Support’.

Need more help?

To speak with a Kaitakawaenga Māori from IRD, email your closest IRD office by clicking on your region below and entering your details in the questions that pop up on the email.
If you're in West Auckland or the North Shore, Takapuna is the closest office. For all other areas in Auckland, choose Manukau.

Or, you can call 0800 473 107 and speak to a general representative from IRD.

Whangarei
Takapuna
Manukau
Hamilton
Tauranga
Rotorua
Napier
New Plymouth

Palmerston North
Wellington
Nelson
Greymouth
Christchurch
Timaru
Dunedin
Invercargill

Overview of support available at different alert levels

Check out business.govt.nz for a summary of the financial support available to help you, your business and employees in times of difficulty, to recover from the effects of COVID-19.

Ngā manaakitanga,
NZ Māori Tourism.