Interstate Business Management - Tulsa

Q&A on the PPP

Question: If I received the first PPP, should I include this number in calculating whether I "lost 25%+" to qualify for the second round?

Answer: As you might remember, the requirement in order to receive a second PPP is that the small business has less than 300 employees and can demonstrate a revenue reduction of 25 percent. But that revenue reduction figure should NOT include any funds from the first PPP.

Also, you can calculate this either by quarter, or by fiscal year -- whichever is more advantageous. Many area small businesses need help with these calculations ... that’s what we’re here for.

We like to have a little fun laughing at the newest TurboTax commercials that pop up this time of year. Last year, it was "all people are tax people". This year, they're promoting their "live" feature with commercials of a floating desk answering various deduction questions.

It's clever, but it glides over what it is and isn't -- relying upon software to do your taxes can be a very expensive mistake. And that's not even mentioning the armies of bored, underpaid "tax experts" who are "at your disposal", apparently.

Every year, we unwind the messes of clients who went this self-prepared, software route -- and who ended up owing money they shouldn't have.

If this is you, no shame -- we'll fix this stuff for you and figure out if you do in fact owe what they say. Even if you do, we have ways of helping to even get that number reduced.

According to a recent report, the IRS is apparently understaffed, overstretched and waaaay behind on collections notices, and other such things.

But that doesn't mean they've forgotten about your tax bill.

Riding on the waves of these IRS delays will only bring about greater harm to your tax situation.

Don't be like the IRS. Get on top of it, with our help.

Just announced...

Tax season opens on Friday, Feb. 12, 2021.

This is when the IRS will begin accepting paper AND electronic filing of your 2020 tax returns.

As always, we can help.

Business owners:
Beginning Jan. 1, 2021 (and through June 30, 2021), the new relief bill expanded the Employee Retention Credit.

- The bill increases the payroll tax credit rate from 50 percent to 70 percent of qualified wages.

- Also it expands eligibility for the credit by reducing the required year-over-year gross receipts decline from 50% to 20% and provides a safe harbor allowing employers to use prior quarter gross receipts to determine eligibility. This might not seem significant, but for the right business, this is VERY good news.

- The limit on per-employee creditable wages is increased from $10,000 for the year to $10,000 for each quarter. Much more generous.

- The 100-employee delineation for determining the relevant qualified wage base increases to employers with 500 or fewer employees.

- Employers who receive PPP loans may still qualify for the ERTC with respect to wages that are not paid for with forgiven PPP proceeds. Previously, you had to choose one program or the other ... now, as long as you qualify for both, you can use both.

How about some good news? Here's an inspirational story about serving those we love and reminding us we're never too old to do great things.

Great-grandmother earns college degree at 90 years old At 90 years old, great-grandma Marion Thomas earned her college degree from Georgian Court University after putting her education on hold to care for her husband who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

PPP updates:

Deductible PPP Expenses
Under the new COVID relief bill (CAA), businesses are now allowed to deduct expenses associated with their forgiven PPP loans -- this is big news.

New PPP Funds
Further, the new law provides $284.45B to reopen and strengthen PPP for first and second time borrowers and reauthorizes the program through March 31, 2021. The requirement in order to receive a second PPP is that the small business has less than 300 employees and can demonstrate a revenue reduction of 25% in any quarter.

PPP Forgiveness
There are now simplified forgiveness applications for loans under $150K. Every lender will handle slightly differently, but what the bill indicates is that the borrower signs and submits a one-page certification that requires the borrower to list the loan amount, the number of employees retained, and the estimated total amount of the loan spent on payroll costs. That's it!

Eligible Expenses
The bill also expands the list of eligible expenses to include covered operations (software, cloud computing and other human resources and accounting needs), PPE, covered supplier costs and damage costs due to public disturbances.

Related to EIDL
The bill repeals the CARES Act provision that requires borrowers to deduct their EIDL Advance from their PPP loan forgiveness amount.

..That's a lot of info, but we wanted to simply summarize the basics of the new PPP provisions for you. (Yes, that was the simplified version.)

Let us know what questions you have. We can help.

Check on the status of your latest stimulus payment here:

Get My Payment | Internal Revenue Service Use Get My Payment to get information about your payment status and payment type.

More (easily-digestible) news from the latest stimulus bill from Congress:

College students and parents with federal student loans will receive an additional extension on student loan payments, and won't be required to make payments on federal student loans until April 1, 2021. This includes both principal and interest payments.

Renters and landlords, the second coronavirus relief bill affects you.

This new act extends the moratorium on evictions under the CARES Act, designed to protect renters from eviction, until January 31, 2021.

That means, if you are a renter, you have one more month to get right. For landlords, you need to know that you will have to wait one more month.

So you don't have to read all 5,500 pages of the second Covid Relief Bill (?!) or the selectively worded news reports, we're working this week to break it down into what you need to know. Today, we're talking about changes to child tax credits.

There is now a special temporary rule allowing lower-income people to use their earned income from tax year 2019 to determine the Earned Income Tax Credit and the refundable portion of the Child Tax Credit (i.e., the Additional Child Tax Credit) in the 2020 tax year. This is very good news.

Taxpayers who filed returns through H&R Block and TurboTax in recent years are experiencing a delay in receiving their second round of stimulus checks. The issue is for those who had their tax prep fee deducted from their refund, causing stimulus payments to be sent to temporary accounts set up for that purpose.

"The IRS says that the financial institutions that received the funds will return them to the IRS, and then the IRS will reissue payments to the right accounts. This will cause delays in people receiving their payments."

Maybe ... next time ... try a different solution? 🤷‍♀️

H&R Block and TurboTax customers report issues with second stimulus check deposit Many people who filed their 2019 taxes with H&R Block or TurboTax told CNBC Make It that they are experiencing a delay in receiving their payments.