On Wednesday, March 10, 2021, the House approved the American Rescue Plan (ARP). The legislation applies to individuals and businesses alike, covering a wide variety of topics. Yesterday we sent out a high-level overview of some of the most significant changes for individuals. We will cover some of the most significant changes impacting businesses in this Eblast.

A key provision of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) from March 2020 relates to tax credits for family and sick leave related to COVID-19 quarantine requirements. These are dollar-for-dollar credits that employers were eligible to receive for required payments to employees for the duration of 2020. Though not required, employers were given the option of implementing this policy through March 2021 and continuing to receive the credit. The ARP keeps this plan going through September 30, 2021.

This is important to note. The clock is going to restart here for employees who have already used their allotted 10 days for sick leave or their 12 weeks for family leave. Starting on April 1, everyone starts over as if they had used zero days off under the FFCRA. This means employees who have already exhausted their paid family and/or sick leave benefit can now receive that benefit again for the period between 4/1/2021 and 9/30/2021.

As a reminder, those of you who are self-employed can also stake claim to this credit. If you are unable to work due to the fact that you have COVID-19, have symptoms of COVID-19, or are forced to quarantine because of COVID-19 regulations, OR if you have a child you have to take care of who is out of school/daycare because of anything related to COVID-19, you are also entitled to these credits.

It is also worth noting that this is not a required provision as it was throughout 2020. Employers have the option of electing out of offering these credits as long as they’re not discriminatory. That is, you can’t tell Employee A that they are getting paid but Employee B that they are not.

This has been a hot topic ever since the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) passed on December 27, 2020. The CAA granted businesses that received a PPP loan the option to apply for and receive a sizeable credit against certain wages that were not used for PPP loan forgiveness. We have discussed this at length previously here and the rules for eligibility have not changed. The difference now is that the ERC is available through December 31, 2021. We are still waiting on additional guidance on 2021 ERC implementation, so we plan to postpone ERC calculations unless absolutely necessary until after the 2020 tax filing season.

So far nothing substantive has changed. Some additional money has been added to the PPP but the cutoff remains March 31 for funding purposes. Banks may even elect to stop accepting applications before the 31^st to ensure they are able to process the applications they already have on hand. We strongly encourage you to reach out to your banker as soon as possible to ensure your application is submitted timely and is complete.

Restaurants are about to come into a significant financial windfall thanks to the ARP. There will be new grants of up to $10 million for the food and beverage industry for businesses with revenue losses in 2020 compared to 2019.

Unfortunately, there remains a lot that we do not yet know. The SBA will have to write the rules for the program and get it set up, and if this is anything like the Shuttered Venues Operator Grants, it’s going to be a while before restaurants get any money from this program. We will continue to monitor this closely and provide details as they come available.

Certain licensed and registered childcare providers aim to benefit from a nearly $15B apportionment of funding through September 30, 2021. Grants will be made available after the program has been established. Fortunately, the permitted uses for the funding are broad. Uses include personnel costs, rent, PPE, mental health support for children and employees, along with other listed categories of common expenditures. More information is expected on this program in the coming weeks, but it is one that will benefit many organizations significantly impacted by the pandemic.

This information is current as of March 11, 2021. We remind you once again that we anticipate the President signing this bill into law tomorrow, March 12, at which point these changes will be official. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out. We appreciate the opportunity to work with you as we navigate these uncharted waters together.