The Temporary Business Energy Support Scheme (TBESS) was announced in Budget 2023 to support qualifying businesses facing increases in their electricity or natural gas costs in the period from 1 September 2022 to 28 February 2023.
The scheme is open to businesses that:
- are tax compliant
- carry on a Case I trade or Case II profession (including certain charities and approved sporting bodies in relation to certain activities), and
- have experienced an increase of 50% or more in their electricity and/or natural gas average unit price.
Qualifying businesses can claim for 40% of the increases in their energy bills. The increase in energy bills must be between the ‘claim period’ and the ‘reference period’. A claim period is a calendar month from September 2022 to February 2023. A reference period is the corresponding calendar month in the previous year.
For example, September 2021 is the reference period for the September 2022 claim period.
The following items can not be included in the eligible costs:
- Value Added Tax (VAT)
- any arrears or prepayments (the charges must relate to the particular billing period)
A limit of €10,000 applies to the total payments that a qualifying business can claim for each claim period (month). The €10,000 limit can be increased where a qualifying business operates across multiple locations and has more than one electricity account. In such cases, the monthly limit can increase by €10,000 per electricity account, subject to an overall monthly limit of €30,000.
Each electricity account must have its own unique MPRN identifier. The increased limit will not apply where multiple electricity accounts are located at the same electricity supply address or are adjacent to each other.
You can register for the scheme via the e-Registration facility on Revenue’s Online Service (ROS). A claim portal in respect of TBESS will be available via the eRepayments system on ROS from 5 December. Qualifying claims under the scheme will be paid once the enabling legislation in Finance Bill 2022 is enacted later in December.
Revenue has published detailed guidance on TBESS here.
