In the wake of coronavirus: Companies needing aid can take loans or tax credits, but not both

MOSES LAKE — Congress included several major tax incentives for employers as part of its $2 trillion COVID-19 relief package, but small businesses will have to choose between either the tax relief or the Small Business Administration’s emergency loans.

According to Chris Eyler, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s executive director for congressional and public affairs in the Pacific Northwest, for most small businesses, the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, loans available from SBA-approved banks, and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan, or EIDL, available directly from the SBA, “will be the most generous” assistance available to small businesses.

Eyler spoke Thursday during an hour-long webinar jointly hosted by the Grant County Economic Development Council and the Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce to provide updated information about aid to companies closed by the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders and aid to employees who have lost their jobs.

In the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (known as the “CARES Act”), Congress included significant emergency aid and assistance to small and large businesses, extended unemployment insurance to 39 weeks and increased the weekly benefit by $600 to anyone laid off as a result of COVID-19-related closures.

As part of the legislation, Eyler said Congress gave companies the option of delaying the payment of their 6.2 percent portion of Social Security payroll taxes until Jan. 1, 2021, with 50 percent due by the end of 2021 and the remainder due by the end of 2022.

Congress also created a refundable Employee Retention Tax Credit that allows companies that shut down or see a 50 percent decrease in “gross receipts” to claim a tax credit of 50 percent of up to $10,000 in wages and some benefits per employee so long as the company continues to pay wages, Eyler said. For companies with more than 100 employees, this applies to all employees who have been sent home and “are not providing services” while they are paid. Companies with 100 or fewer people may claim this for all employees.

The goal, Eyler said, is “to keep an employee an employee,” limit the number of people receiving unemployment benefits, make sure companies have as much ready cash on hand as possible, and make it easier to get them back up and running when the pandemic subsides.

“It will be easier to go back to work,” he said.

But Eyler said companies taking the tax credits cannot apply for either the PPP or EIDL loans. Companies taking the loans will be forgiven the portions used to meet payroll, pay rent and utilities.

Also, as of Friday, April 10, independent contractors, such as hair stylists, will be able to apply for PPP loans from participating banks. On April 18, the self-employed who have lost work as a result of pandemic-related closures will be able to apply for unemployment insurance.

According to Todd Wurl, administrator for the state’s Employment Security Department WorkSource Program in Moses Lake, who was part of the Thursday webinar, 171,000 Washington workers filed for unemployment in the week ending April 4, down slightly from 182,000 the week before but seven times what unemployment claims were at any time during the financial crisis of 2008-2009.

“But we’re expecting an uptick,” he said.

Wurl said the state’s unemployment insurance system has been overwhelmed with applications, and he advised applicants to be patient and set up their Secure Online Washington account at secureaccess.wa.gov first.

Also on Thursday, the U.S. Federal Reserve — the country’s central bank — announced in a press release a series of initiatives to help businesses and governments across the country. The initiatives include an initial $35 billion in direct lending to city, county, and state governments, an initial $75 billion to purchase corporate bonds, at least $75 billion in direct loans to companies with 10,000 or fewer employees or up to $2.5 billion in annual sales, and at least $100 billion in loans to financial firms such as insurance companies, banks, credit card companies and mortgage and student loan companies.

Online documents detailing these and other parts of federal aid programs are new and not entirely clear. Greater clarity and consistency may be available in the future.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at [email protected].