Good afternoon, .
Things are changing fast and MMA will continue to devote our efforts to keeping members informed and well represented through our regular and direct contact with the Governor, officials in her Administration and legislative leaders.
Below is an update on developments related to the COVID-19 outbreak in the last 48 hours:
New Federal Law Mandates Paid Sick Leave and Expands FMLA
Just last evening, President Donald Trump signed HR 6201, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. The new law expands the Family Medical Leave Act to all companies with fewer than 500 employees in the case of certain qualified needs related to COVID-19 and requires employers with fewer than 500 employees to provide Paid Sick Leave to employees impacted by COVID-19. The cost to employers for both of these programs will be offset through tax credits. The Honigman law firm has prepared a helpful analysis of the law for your review. Please note that the analysis was posted immediately following Senate passage and the President has since signed the bill into law.
We are working quickly to ascertain and gain guidance about what this new law means for manufacturers. Many questions were answered in a member conference call with Miller Canfield’s Megan Norris. You can access a recording of the call online. We will be scheduling another conference call for early next week to focus specifically on this topic.
Tax Deadlines Extended
The IRS has issued Notice 2020-17 granting a 90-day deferral in making tax payments until 7/15/20.
C-corporations or consolidated groups can defer up to $10 million, and all other tax payers can defer up to $1 million. Here in Michigan, the Department of Treasury announced that businesses scheduled to make monthly sales, use and withholding tax payments on March 20 can postpone filing and payment requirements until April 20. All penalties and interest will be waived for 30 days. The waiver is not available for accelerated sales, use or withholding tax filers.
Effective and Secure Remote Work
In addition to the resources included in MMAs COVID-19 Resources page, IT Resource is hosting a 30-minute interactive webinar on Wednesday, 3/25/20 at 11:00 a.m. ET to help you with security considerations when many more employees have remote access to company resources thanks to COVID-19 social distancing measures. Learn more and register here.
As always, please let me know if I or the MMA team can be of further assistance.