Middle Ga. Business Solutions, LLC

Any small businesses who run their own payroll should be aware of some payroll tax credits that will be available if you qualify. These should take effect and be reflected on updated 941's beginning 2nd Quarter 2020. From IRS Website: 1. Sick and Family Leave... Eligible employers are entitled to receive a credit in the full amount of the required sick leave and family leave, plus related health plan expenses and the employer’s share of Medicare tax on the leave, for the period of April 1, 2020, through December 31, 2020. The refundable credit is applied against certain employment taxes on wages paid to all employees. 2. Employee Retention Credit Eligible employers can claim the employee retention credit, a refundable tax credit equal to 50 percent of up to $10,000 in qualified wages (including health plan expenses), paid after March 12, 2020 and before January 1, 2021. Eligible employers are those businesses with operations that have been partially or fully suspended due to governmental orders due to COVID-19, or businesses that have a significant decline in gross receipts compared to 2019. The refundable credit is capped at $5,000 per employee and applies against certain employment taxes on wages paid to all employees. Eligible employers can reduce federal employment tax deposits in anticipation of the credit. They can also request an advance of the employee retention credit for any amounts not covered by the reduction in deposits. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f7200.pdf

**Updates regarding unemployment payments**. They are finally rolling out the federal portion of the unemployment payments that should get everyone close(r) to their normal pay rate. There are still several weeks of back pay that I will continue working on for some of you guys. Please keep hanging in there! The Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL) is updating its current systems to distribute federal unemployment funds as part of the CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and... Economic Security) bringing additional economic relief to many Georgians. For those individuals currently receiving state unemployment benefits, the GDOL started delivering the additional $600 weekly supplement from the federal stimulus bill this week. This includes many employees that have been temporarily laid off or had their hours reduced due to COVID-19 and, as part of the federal stimulus package, will not be charged back to employers. This supplement will be an additional payment to regular weekly state unemployment benefits and will include all eligible weeks beginning with the week ending 4/4/2020. The supplement amount is contingent upon any deductions required by the state or federal government. Since employers are filing employer-filed (partial) claims on behalf of these employees, those benefits will stop when these employees return to work. What to Tell Your Employees Email the link to the COVID-19 Individual FAQs to your employees and review it yourself to help answer their questions. When you file the first week of claims, they will receive a Georgia Way2Go Debit MasterCard within 7-10 days loaded with their first payment, unless they have direct deposit information on file with GDOL from a previous claim within the last 18 months. After the first week of claims, they can expect payment within 24-48 hours of you submitting their weekly claims. Do NOT tell your employees to claim their weekly benefits with GDOL. You are claiming their weekly benefits for them by filing each week. They can create a PIN online using UI Benefit Payment Methods after their claim is processed by GDOL. They can check the status of their claim and payments using My UI (Check My UI Claim Status). Their PIN is required. They can enroll in direct deposit using Benefit Payment Methods. They cannot enroll in direct deposit until AFTER the first claim is processed by GDOL. They can reset their PINs using Reset Your PIN They are exempt from work search requirements.

I have had some people ask me about receiving economic impact payments if you did not file a tax return and/or if your information may have changed since you last filed (address, direct deposit information, dependents etc.) Here is a link that allows you to address these issues through the IRS website. If you have filed a 2018 or 2019 return and your information has not changed then you don't need to do anything. If you receive social security benefits then you don't need to do anything. Hope this helps some. Stay safe, stay home, wash yo hands https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/economic-impact-payments

https://www.natptax.com//covid19resources/Documents/irs-pa

They start accepting applications for these tomorrow https://home.treasury.gov//Paycheck-Protection-Program-App https://home.treasury.gov/system/files//PPP--Fact-Sheet.pdf