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The Employee Retention Credit (ERC) was established under the CARES Act in March 2020 to provide a refundable employment tax credit to help businesses with the cost of payroll and to help keep people employed during the COVID-19 pandemic. If your business qualifies, the ERC can potentially be a very large influx of cash to help you continue to run a successful business.

The Small Business Administration recently announced changes to its COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan program.

Shuttered Venue Operators Grants and Restaurant Revitalization Fund Grants can pose accounting challenges.

On Aug. 10, the AICPA released a Technical Question and Answer (TQA) surrounding how a recipient should account for these grants. TQA 5270.01, Recipient Accounting for Shuttered Venue Operators Grants (SVOG) and Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF) Grants Received Under the Small Business Administration (SBA) COVID-19 Relief Program provides nonauthoritative guidance about how to account for SVOG and RRF grants. It applies to not-for-profit organizations who were only eligible for SVOG and private businesses entities who were eligible for both grants.

Since last March, our world dramatically changed in many ways! Based upon all of the changes that have been thrust upon us, what have we learned about the following areas of concern that we may not have thought about pre-COVID, regardless of age?

• • If I am unable to communicate on my own, do I have all of the necessary legal documents in place to address my wishes? Do I have a will? Do I need a trust?

  • Have I thought about my healthcare wishes if I become unable to make my own medical decisions? Do I have a Living Will and Healthcare Power of Attorney in place?

On June 2, the Ohio Department of Health issued a Director’s Order to rescind the vast majority of former health orders regarding mask mandates and social distancing. Businesses may continue to require mitigation measures (e.g., masking and social distancing) among those vaccinated and unvaccinated, and individuals may choose to practice mitigation measures.

On Dec. 21, Congress passed the long awaited $900 billion COVID stimulus deal. The legislation called, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, is expected to be quickly signed by President Trump. It is intended to help families and small businesses that are continuing to be adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the past few weeks, some of our local commercial lenders have slowly begun to open their online portals to allow those businesses who received Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Loans to file their applications to obtain forgiveness of the debt related to qualified expenses.

While the loan application process was a heated fury of business owners rushing to obtain the much needed funds so that they could continue to employ and pay their employees, retain health insurance coverage and pay their rent, the loan forgiveness process seems to be occurring at much less of an accelerated rate. Although credit should go to the Small Business Administration for issuing some guidance to the lenders who have extended these loans, not all the related questions have been answered.

On Aug. 8, President Donald Trump issued a memorandum on deferring payroll tax obligations in light of the ongoing COVID-19 Disaster, which directed the Treasury Department to suspend collection of the employee portion of Social Security taxes from Sept. 1 through the end of 2020.

For many commercial real estate owners, the real estate bubble of 2008 was far in the rearview mirror as they rang in the 2020 New Year.

Nearly 12 years later, they survived the drop in property valuations, frozen lines of credit, mortgage defaults and renegotiations, which the credit markets had served up in 2008. Little did they know, the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. would usher in a far greater challenge than they ever experienced.

When movie theaters were forced to shut down in mid-March due to safety concerns related to the coronavirus pandemic, Atlas Cinemas Vice President Gabriel Saluan made a financially difficult decision to keep his managers on payroll.

While other theater chains were laying all of their employees off, Saluan saw an opportunity to reinvest in his theaters and he needed his managers to play a key role in reopening to the public.