photo = Yonhap News
Although the government is releasing more than 10 trillion won to support small business owners who have been severely damaged by the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), there are also significant cases where they do not receive adequate support due to blind spots. Small business owners excluded from the subsidy are complaining about the government’s refusal to provide subsidies by applying unreasonable standards.
It was open for one day, but ‘sales per month’ → subsidy was eliminated
Mr. A, who runs a restaurant, started his business in June 2019. The business was registered on the 30th and started business. Mr. A earned 24 million won by the end of the year. It was about 4 million won a month, enough to live on. Since February of last year, sales began to decline as the COVID-19 outbreak began in earnest. He made 30 million won in the first half, but only 18 million won in the second half.
Mr. A thought that he could receive the government’s disaster subsidy for small businesses due to a significant decrease in sales. However, the result was unscheduled treatment. In the second half of the year, it was reduced from about 24 million won to 18 million won, so it should be eligible for subsidies, but the problem was that it was founded on June 30, 2019, explains Mr. A. Because of the day on June 30th, he was in a situation where he had to consider sales in the first half of the year. According to Mr. A’s explanation, in 2019, it was calculated that he earned an average of 3.42 million won per month for 7 months from June to December. This is less than last year’s monthly sales of 400 million won. In other words, it is classified as a business whose sales have increased despite COVID-19.
Mr. B registered as a business in October 2019, but opened only in December because the interior was not completed. Monthly sales were $400,000. Last year, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it earned 36 million won. On an average monthly basis, that’s $300,000. Although sales decreased from 4 million won to 3 million won, it was calculated that the average monthly income from October to December 2019 was 1.33 million won based on the business registration date. As sales from 1.33 million won increased to 3 million won, the subsidy was treated as ‘unpaid’.
In the case of simplified taxpayers and duty-free businesses, there were a number of cases where half-year sales were not calculated at all. The ‘Business Plus (4th Disaster Subsidy) Semi-Annual Sales Comparison Excluded Business Emergency Response Committee’, which consists of small business owners, held a press conference in front of the National Assembly on the 2nd and said, “There were 60,000 small business owners who were judged not to be paid for the 4th disaster subsidy despite business restrictions. reached,” he claimed.
The non-captainer pointed out, “General taxpayers receive VAT standard certification every half year, but small, simple and tax-free businesses are excluded from payment because it is difficult to prove them semi-annually.” He then appealed, “Are you saying that small business owners who tried to make a living, such as operators who failed to do business properly, those who tried to increase sales by using high-fee delivery apps, and small, simple and duty-free operators, are criminals?”
Small business owners are explaining that they can solve the problem of simple business operators, such as calculating the average sales including the month when no sales are generated, or counting the sales for a month when the card sales are checked and compared. there is. In response, an official from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups said, “We are discussing with the National Tax Service about ways to consider cash receipts, electronic tax invoices, and card sales.”
Up to 31.5 million won in support for small businesses
The government subsidy for small business owners reaches a maximum of 11.5 million won up to the 4th subsidy. Starting with the first emergency employment stability subsidy of 1.5 million won paid with freelancers in June last year, new hope funds of 2 million won, support funds of 3 million won, and support plus funds of 5 million won were paid.
In the second supplementary budget, the maximum amount of the Hope Recovery Fund was raised to 20 million won. You can receive subsidies of up to 31.5 million won.
However, small business owners are arguing that the government should not only emphasize the size of the total amount but pay attention to actual payments. As for the support plus fund, which gives up to 5 million won, the 2 trillion won, which is 30% of the 6.7 trillion won budget, was not properly executed due to the large number of cases of site payment discussed earlier. This will be used as a financial source for the Hope Recovery Fund, the second supplementary budget project.
The situation was similar for the two previous subsidies for small businesses. According to the National Assembly Budget Office, only 2.8 trillion won was actually paid out of the 3.3 trillion won budget for the first subsidy for small businesses. This was used as the second subsidy budget. The agency pointed out that the situation in which the disaster subsidy for small businesses is excessively set is repeated as the budget is ‘reckless’ without a proper analysis of the appropriateness of the support scale and the number of beneficiaries.
Small business owners are pointing out that the government and politicians are saving money by making a decision on the subsidy site based on strict standards after announcing the size of the support amount. It is said that there are cases in which tens of thousands of won in subsidies are announced as if they are not being paid properly.
By Kang Jin-gyu, staff reporter josep@hankyung.com
