Senate Approves Over $2 Trillion in Relief to Ease Economic Hardship

The Senate finally approved legislation providing over $2 trillion of relief designed to ease the hardship caused by the coronavirus outbreak. This legislation still requires approval from both the House and President. Approval from both is expected over the next few days.

The relief package is the largest in history. It includes relief for individuals, businesses, state and local governments, and non-profits.

We are reviewing the hundreds of pages of provisions to evaluate how the plan can best support businesses and individuals through the challenges we currently face. The priorities include quick infusions of liquidity to business, provisions to help maintain employment, payroll tax relief, and emergency loans, among many others.

Here are some highlights to consider while Congress and the White House work on finalizing approval, and developing the procedures, forms and infrastructure required to implement the legislation:

• Business Interruption Loans of up to $10MM to employers with less than 500 employees, with loan guaranties to be used towards certain employee salaries, rent, mortgages and other qualified expenses.
• Forgiveness provisions for these loans when used towards qualified payroll costs and debt payments.
• Allowing loss carrybacks from 2018, 2019 and 2020 to be carried back five years to claim tax refunds.
• Temporary removal of limitations on the use of net operating losses.
• Relaxing the interest limitations on business to 50%.
• Immediate deduction of certain improvements to facilities.
• Direct payments to individuals subject to income limitations.
• Separate relief provisions for employers with over 500 employees.

The legislation includes many other specific provisions as well.

We are currently evaluating these various relief provisions while the bill continues through the approval process. Some considerations include:

• How to best prioritize relief based on your immediate liquidity needs.
• How to maximize relief between related or overlapping provisions of the proposed law.
• How can the relief package affect my decision on retaining employees?
• What information will I need to obtain these benefits?
• How do these benefits impact my financial reporting and current financings?

Our COVID-19 Relief Team is evaluating the legislation and developing a plan as to how to best coordinate your benefits. We will continue to update you with more details. In the meantime, contact your Anchin Relationship Partner for additional details as they become available.

A link to a recent release of the Act passed by the Senate can be found here.

Disclaimer: Please note this is based on the information that is currently available and is subject to change.