COVID-19 Daily Communications 3/23

Covid-19

Mar 23

Written By Mackey McNeill

(Information Accurate as of March 23rd 2020)

Highlights:

Senate fails to pass $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act, stalling the enormous measure for the second day. The bill failed 49-46 just before midnight Monday evening. The Senate will resume deliberations on Tuesday. Highlights of the Bill can be found here.
Kentucky has qualified for U.S. Small Business Administration Disaster Loan Assistance
Kentucky announced all nonessential retailers are being ordered to close by Monday, March 23 at 8 p.m.
Kentucky extended the tax filing deadline to mirror the federal government by delaying the tax filing deadline by three months from April 15 to July 15.
Ohio is under a Shelter in Place Order

Client Inquiry responses:

Employer Tax Credits (Sick Leave/Child Care Leave)-

Under guidance that will be this next week, eligible employers who pay qualifying sick or child-care leave will be able to retain an amount of the payroll taxes equal to the amount of qualifying sick and child-care leave that they paid, rather than deposit them with the IRS. The payroll taxes that are available for retention include withheld federal income taxes, the employee share of Social Security and Medicare taxes and the employer share of Social Security and Medicare taxes with respect to all employees.

If there are not sufficient payroll taxes to cover the cost of qualified sick and child care leave paid, employers will be able file a request for an accelerated payment from the IRS. The IRS expects to process these requests in two weeks or less.

Paid Sick Leave Credit- For an employee who is unable to work because of Coronavirus quarantine or self-quarantine or has Coronavirus symptoms and is seeking a medical diagnosis, eligible employers may receive a refundable sick leave credit for sick leave at the employee’s regular rate of pay, up to $511 per day and $5,110 in the aggregate, for a total of 10 days.
For an employee who is caring for someone with Coronavirus, or is caring for a child because the child’s school or child care facility is closed, or the child care provider is unavailable due to the Coronavirus, eligible employers may claim a credit for two-thirds of the employee’s regular rate of pay, up to $200 per day and $2,000 in the aggregate, for up to 10 days.
Eligible employers are entitled to an additional tax credit determined based on costs to maintain health insurance coverage for the eligible employee during the leave period.

Child Care Leave Credit

In addition to the sick leave credit, for an employee who is unable to work because of a need to care for a child whose school or child-care facility is closed or whose child care provider is unavailable due to the Coronavirus, eligible employers may receive a refundable child care leave credit. This credit is equal to two-thirds of the employee’s regular pay, capped at $200 per day or $10,000 in the aggregate. Up to 10 weeks of qualifying leave can be counted towards the child-care leave credit.
Eligible employers are entitled to an additional tax credit determined based on costs to maintain health insurance coverage for the eligible employee during the leave period.
Ohio SharedWork Program: SharedWork Ohio is a layoff aversion program managed by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. The program allows employers to temporarily reduce the weekly work hours for a unit of employees in a uniform manner during times of reduced business activity. During the time that unit employees work a reduced schedule, ODJFS provides eligible individuals in the unit with unemployment benefits proportionate to their reduced hours. For details click here!
Property Owner mortgage relief: The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will offer multifamily property owners mortgage forbearance with the condition that they suspend all evictions for renters unable to pay rent due to the impact of coronavirus. The eviction suspensions are in place for the entire duration of time that a property owner remains in forbearance. The forbearance is available to all multifamily properties with an Enterprise-backed performing multifamily mortgage negatively affected by the coronavirus national emergency.

Corporate-funded Small Business COVID-19 relief efforts:

FacebookFacebook is investing $100 million to help 30,000 eligible small businesses in the over 30 countries where Facebook operates. Details are limited at this point, and applications are not yet open, but this is how Facebook’s grant program is expected to help: