Posts Tagged ‘COVID-19 relief’

Beginning today, employees within a certain pay threshold have the option to defer their Social Security witholding tax. The optional deferral period for the employee portion of the Social Security withholding tax (6.2%) is September 1st – December 31st. The deferral option is restricted to employees whose wages are less than $4,000 pre-tax during a bi-weekly pay period.  Guidance was issued late on Friday, August 28th by the Treasury and IRS (follow the link below). IRS and U.S. Treasury Guidance Employee payroll taxes include two separate taxes: Social Security and Medicare. These two taxes together are known as FICA (Federal Insurance Contributions Act) taxes… read more »

COVID-19 Update: Main Street Lending Program The Federal Reserve has established the Main Street Lending Program to provide an additional $2.3 trillion in loans to support small and mid-size businesses. Loans in this program may be in addition to loans granted through the Paycheck Protection Program (although these loans are not forgivable). To qualify, a business must have no more than 10,000 employees and a 2019 annual revenue that does not exceed $2.5 billion. The business must also be created and have significant operations in the United States. A loan through this program will have the following terms: Minimum loan… read more »

Small businesses received a bit of good news Thursday, April 3rd with two critical announcements for small businesses.  The SBA announced that they will relieve principal and interest obligations of SBA 7(a) borrowers for six months beginning with payments after March 27, 2020.   This will also apply to loans that have already taken a 6–month deferment, and payments shall begin at the conclusion of the deferment period unless the borrower chooses to have the payments begin sooner.  Further guidance will be forthcoming from SBA.  USDA also announced a temporary exception for lenders to offer a 180–day deferral fo USDA… read more »