A new year and a new beginning, hopefully, a pleasant and prosperous one, as the carol lyrics would imbue. Coming along with it is a new entourage, a new set of personalities to cover the whole visage of national government.
A presage of things to come, it may be interpreted by some. However, do not ever get your hopes high over the roof for something will set your feet back on solid, real ground.
Tax.
It is the season – tax season, that is – and it ends on a legally specified date: April 15. So, gather up those receipts, sum up all the costs and expenses, add or lessen those that you have missed and wait for the headache to come.
Reach out then to that one-solution cabinet of medicines and sort through the assortment of vials and packets of tablets, pills, liquids and even creams and balms. Hold yourself before popping that pill or whatever that is you intend to ingest or wipe yourself over with.
There is hope. Indeed, there is relief, and it all started last year; well, for the US side, anyway. It came by consensus under the mettle of the previous administration and passed into law by legislators of Congress.
Coronavirus Tax Relief
The scramble by the government to help, aid, give relief to individuals and businesses hampered and severely affected by the pandemic caused by the Coronavirus eventually made a law, signed by the president, in March 2020 called the CARES Act.
The law seeks to help the worker, the employer and the unemployed. Under specific provisions, each of these category is given relief and aid accordingly. By the enactment of the law, the government has reached the realization that taxes for the fiscal year will surely fall short.
The rush to enact the bill was to pre-empt the tax filing deadline of April 15, 2020. Not enough time perhaps specially for businesses, bookkeepers and accountants but a solid framework was put up just in the nick of time.
CARES Act essentially has three key updated provisions which is lightly skimmed over in this article. These are:
- Unemployment Insurance Provision. This provision provides additional compensation to eligible individuals aside from, meaning, added into whatever the unemployed benefits would have received in the state level in the amount of six hundred dollars (US$ 600).
- Paycheck Protection Program. This program is for the businessman or woman. In a concise manner, the government will extend loans to businesses. Whether your business closed down or still operates in the pandemic, you may be eligible.
There are other details relative to this program. However, this PPP loan was available only to businesses up to the end of July 2020.
- Recovery Rebate. This is now for the taxpayers. Depending on the status you are in – single, married, with or without children, senior or not – rebates on taxes will be given by the federal government. This is for those who had filed their returns; non-filers will not enjoy this benefit.
Consolidated Appropriations Act
CARES Act has come and gone but the pandemic persists still, and the world has seen an uptick in the infection of Coronavirus. Nobody could have foreseen this extended peril into the health of every person. The rush for a viable vaccine could well be just around the corner.
There is hope undeniably but the federal support, CARES Act, is done and gone. To counter this extension of this troublesome virus, President Trump, in the last days of December 2020 signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act.
By the name itself, it is a law that incorporates or consolidates the second round of Coronavirus Relief Bill to the Appropriations Act for the year 2021.
Though lower in funds than the CARES Act in its enactment, it will be supplemented – if necessary – through a vehicle in Congress by Continuing Resolution. The second round of Coronavirus Relief is basically the same as CARES with improvements and extension of who will be eligible to benefit.
The worker, business and unemployed sectors are still the core of the second relief. Loans are still in place where bad loans of the first relief can be recalibrated while Recovery Rebate is still enforced.
All provisions will, technically, be in effect until the middle of March 2021 as is stated in the bill. But then again, Congress has the power to extend it a third time, hopefully not.
The information contained here is limited. For complete details, we encourage you to contact or visit the web pages of H&R Block, a tax professional company which can attend to your inquiries on a personal level, or go straight to the IRS.
