The Travel Gift is an official state aid according to the EEA agreement. According to temporary regulations on state aids due to the COVID-19 epidemic, from 19. March 2020, a company is allowed to accept Travel Gifts equivalent to a maximum of 100.000.000 ISK. A company that was facing operational difficulties on 31. December 2019, according to the EU Block Exemption Regulation No. 651/2014, can accept a maximum of 25.000.000 ISK.
A company was considered having operational difficulties at that time if it met at least one of the following conditions, as per regulations on state aids to mitigate the economic effect due to the COVID-19 epidemic:
The corporation has limited liability, and carried equity according to acknowledged accounting principles is less than half of proceeds from issue of capital stock, including share premium account.
At least one member of the corporation carries unlimited liability, and carried equity according to acknowledged accounting principles is less than half of proceeds from issue of capital stock, including share premium account.
The corporation is undergoing liquidation or meets the requirements of bankruptcy proceedings as per creditor's request.
The corporation has received corporate rescue as defined by EFTA's rescuing and restructuring aid, and has yet to make the loan payment or relieve liability, or has received restructuring aid and is still bound by a restructuring programme.
The following applies to 2 previous financial years: a) the debt-to-equity ratio is higher than 7,5 and b) earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) is lower than the annual net cost of capital.
Conditions (1) and (2) do not apply to small or medium-sized businesses that have been operating for less than 3 years.
Condition (5) does not apply to small or medium-sized businesses.
Businesses are defined as small or medium-sized according to Act No. 3/2006 on annual financial statements.