With all the confusion surrounding Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, much time and talk has been spent in the past couple of months in dealing with the forgiveness piece of the puzzle, and we now have some concrete answers. Congress, on Wednesday, passed the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act (PPPFA), which incorporates some much-needed changes...Read More

Now that you have gotten a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan , it’s time to start planning how to spend the loan proceeds so some portion of the loan will be forgiven. As the loan title implies, the purpose of the loans is to enable employers to keep their employees on staff and maintain their...Read More

The IRS has already sent out 80 million stimulus payments to taxpayers that included their direct deposit information on their most recently filed 2019 or 2018 return. So, if you had filed either your 2019 or 2018 return before the direct deposits were issued, you should already have the money in the bank, UNLESS: You...Read More

To help businesses retain employees and keep them employed during the COVID-19 crisis, Congress has provided a refundable employer retention credit available to all qualifying employers regardless of size, including tax-exempt organizations. To qualify for the credit, employers must fall into one of two categories: Business Operations Curtailed: Eligible employers were carrying out a trade...Read More

The IRS is planning to create a new, online portal called “Where’s My Economic Impact Payment” where people can obtain details about their payment from the economic stimulus package and also provide their banking information. Background After the CARES Act passed through Congress, Treasury and the IRS had estimated there would be 171 million rebate...Read More

In addition to the stimulus payments discussed earlier, the CARES Act has some other tax provisions that individuals may be able to take advantage of, if only temporarily. What follows is a brief discussion of each of the individual tax changes contained in the new law: Waiver of 10% early distribution penalty from Qualified Plans...Read More

A major part of the CARES Act, which was signed into law yesterday by President Trump, deals with an inflow of cash to small businesses, both directly (through new lending programs) and indirectly (through tax credits). Here are some of the main points, following the same FAQ format as my last post on stimulus payments...Read More

This evening, President Trump signed into law the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (the CARES Act), ending a whirlwind two-week run of back and forth between the House and Senate. With the law comes much needed relief for many taxpayers in the form of cash payments from the government. What follows is a...Read More

In response to the ongoing crisis caused by coronavirus, the Department of Labor is charged with implementing new emergency sick leave requirements that apply to all employers with under 500 employees, with some exceptions (see below). The new law goes into effect on April 2. Essentially, there are two parts to the new law: Mandatory...Read More

I’ve been getting a lot of questions from small business owners recently about two related topics: 1. how to reimburse employees for business expenses, and 2. how to claim the home office deduction. Both of these questions can be answered by using something called an accountable plan. A recent article in the AICPA’s Journal of...Read More