New COVID-19 Relief Bill The $900 billion COVID-19 Relief Bill, which was tied to a $1.4 trillion resolution to fund the government through September 2021, or the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (5,593 pages) that was passed December 21, 2020, provides $600 stimulus payments to individuals, adds $300 to extended weekly unemployment benefits, and provides more…
Form 1099-NEC and Form 1099-MISC Prior to tax year 2020, businesses typically filed Form 1099-MISC to report payments totaling $600 or more to a nonemployee for certain payments from the trade or business. These payments generally represent nonemployee compensation and, up until now, would typically appear in Box 7 of 1099-MISC. Beginning with tax year…
PPP Forgiveness Simplified for Loans of $50,000 or Less Recipients of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans of $50,000 or less will be able to apply for forgiveness using a simplified application (Form 3508S) that was released Thursday by the Treasury and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), which also included the release of a new interim final…
Utah Small Business Quarantined Employee Grant Program The $2 million Small Business Quarantined Employee Grant uses federal CARES Act funds as part of Utah’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides reimbursement to small business employers (less than 50 employees) who pay employees to stay home during quarantine or isolation for a maximum of 40 hours…
What’s Going on with the Paycheck Protection Program While the PPP was implemented quickly as a result of the CARES Act—the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and Treasury launched the program in only a week—there have been a series of interim final rules and frequently asked questions (FAQs) with guidance that often has raised more…
Employee Payroll Tax Deferral Update On August 8, 2020, President Trump signed an executive order allowing employers to defer the withholding and payment of the employee share of Social Security taxes from September 1 through December 31, 2020. As the executive order left many unanswered questions, the IRS later released a notice on August 28,…
Three COVID Related Tax Updates Currently, we are waiting for additional guidance on the Payroll Tax Deferral Program, Unemployment Insurance Benefits, and the PPP Loan Forgiveness Application. The way the payroll tax order was written, it only applies to the employee’s SSA portion of the FICA taxes, but additional definition is pending on several of these tax and…
Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act Updates Yesterday, the U.S. Small Business Administration posted a revised, borrower-friendly Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan forgiveness application implementing the PPP Flexibility Act of 2020. In addition to revising the full forgiveness application, the SBA also published a new EZ version of the forgiveness application, which requires fewer calculations and…
Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act The U.S. Senate passed the House version of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) legislation Wednesday night, tripling the time allotted for small businesses and other PPP loan recipients to spend the funds and still qualify for forgiveness of the loans. A summary of the provisions are as follows: PPP borrowers can…
PPP Loan Forgiveness Application Last week, the Small Business Administration (SBA) released the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Loan Forgiveness Application and detailed instructions for the application. While the application is in final form, we should expect to see further narrative guidance from SBA over the next several weeks. The form and instructions inform borrowers how…