The Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC) is a valuable tax break that was extended and modified by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), enacted in March of 2021. Here’s a rundown of the rules. Background Back in March of 2020, Congress originally enacted the ERTC in the CARES Act to encourage employers to hire and […]
Are you age 65 and older and have basic Medicare insurance? You may need to pay additional premiums to get the level of coverage you want. The premiums can be expensive, especially if you’re married and both you and your spouse are paying them. But there may be a bright side: You may qualify for […]
Eligible parents will soon begin receiving payments from the federal government. The IRS announced that the 2021 advance child tax credit (CTC) payments, which were created in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), will begin being made on July 15, 2021. How have child tax credits changed? The ARPA temporarily expanded and made CTCs refundable […]
The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) was signed into law on March 11, 2021. The new law will provide roughly $1.9 trillion in much-needed financial relief to individuals, businesses, not-for-profit organizations, and state and local governments during the pandemic. Here are some of the key ARPA provisions that will affect federal income taxes for some people […]
The following table provides some important federal tax information for 2021, as compared with 2020. Some of the dollar amounts are unchanged and some changed only slightly due to inflation. Social Security/ Medicare 2021 2020 Social Security Tax Wage Base $142,800 $137,700 Medicare Tax Wage Base No limit No limit Employee portion of Social Security 6.2% […]
The COVID-19 pandemic has put unprecedented stress on private business owners. Some are now considering selling their businesses before Congress has a chance to increase the rates on long-term capital gains. Before putting your business on the market, it’s important to prepare it for sale. Here are six steps to consider. 1. Clean Up the […]
Vaccinations can be an emotionally fraught issue for some people, for various reasons, and the COVID-19 vaccines being administered today come with additional fears about potential side effects. Yet the risk of contracting COVID-19 — and spreading it — remains across the country. Employers may wonder whether they’re legally allowed to require on-site workers to […]
The Biden Administration announced changes to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to increase lending to smaller businesses and help ensure equitable distribution of loans to them. But qualified businesses may want to act fast because there is a two-week period when PPP loan applications will exclusively be accepted from businesses with fewer than 20 employees. […]
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has shut down many sectors of the U.S. economy, causing widespread job losses. Over 10 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits in March, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. And far more claims are expected in April. Some economists predict that the unemployment rate could rise to Depression-era levels of 10% […]
During the unprecedented challenges that the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has imposed on workers and employers, states have been announcing changes to unemployment insurance (UI) benefits. Here are some of the actions: Alabama. The Alabama Department of Labor (ADOL) has announced that it is offering temporary relief to employers for unemployment insurance (UI) benefit claims related to COVID-19. […]
