FAMILIES FIRST CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE ACT

Per IRS guidelines as of 03/20/2020

The Act provided paid sick leave and expanded family and medical leave for COVID-19 related reasons and created the refundable paid sick leave credit and the paid child care leave credit for eligible employers. Eligible employers are businesses and tax-exempt organizations with fewer than 500 employees. Eligible employers will be able to claim these credits based on qualifying leave they provide between the effective date and December 31, 2020.

This Act does not require that employers provide paid leave for employees who are off work just because of office closure.

 

PAID SICK LEAVE FOR WORKERS/PAID SICK LEAVE CREDIT FOR EMPLOYERS:

The Act provides that full-time employees of eligible employers can receive two weeks (up to 80 hours) of paid sick leave at 100% of the employee's pay where the employee is unable to work because the employee is quarantined, and/or experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, and seeking a medical diagnosis.  Part-time employees’ hours would be based on the average number of hours the employee works over a two-week period.  This is additional sick leave to any sick leave already provided by the employer. 

For an employee who is unable to work because of Coronavirus quarantine or self-quarantine or has Coronavirus symptoms and is seeking a medical diagnosis, eligible employers may receive a refundable sick leave credit for sick leave at the employee's regular rate of pay, up to $511 per day and $5,110 in the aggregate, for a total of 10 days.

An employee who is unable to work because of a need to care for an individual subject to quarantine, to care for a child whose school is closed or child care provider is unavailable for reasons related to COVID-19, and/or the employee is experiencing substantially similar conditions as specified by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services can receive two weeks (up to 80 hours) of paid sick leave at 2/3 the employee's pay.

For an employee who is caring for someone with Coronavirus, or is caring for a child because the child's school or child care facility is closed, or the child care provider is unavailable due to the Coronavirus, eligible employers may claim a credit for two-thirds of the employee's regular rate of pay, up to $200 per day and $2,000 in the aggregate, for up to 10 days. Eligible employers are entitled to an additional tax credit determined based on costs to maintain health insurance coverage for the eligible employee during the leave period.  No guidance has been provided for how to calculate the health insurance tax credit at this time.

 

EXPANDED FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE/CHILD CARE LEAVE CREDIT:

An employee who is unable to work due to a need to care for a child whose school is closed, or child care provider is unavailable for reasons related to COVID-19, may in some instances receive up to an additional ten weeks of expanded paid family and medical leave at 2/3 the employee's pay.  Employee has to have been employed for at least 30 days.  The first 10 days of this FMLA may be unpaid but thereafter, the leave must be paid at the 2/3 of employee’s regular rate of pay.

For an employee who is unable to work because of a need to care for a child whose school or child care facility is closed or whose child care provider is unavailable due to the Coronavirus, eligible employers may receive a refundable child care leave credit. This credit is equal to two-thirds of the employee's regular pay, capped at $200 per day or $10,000 in the aggregate. Up to 10 weeks of qualifying leave can be counted towards the child care leave credit. Eligible employers are entitled to an additional tax credit determined based on costs to maintain health insurance coverage for the eligible employee during the leave period.  No guidance has been provided for how to calculate the health insurance tax credit at this time.

 

Prompt Payment for the Cost of Providing Leave

When employers pay their employees, they are required to withhold from their employees' paychecks federal income taxes and the employees' share of Social Security and Medicare taxes. The employers then are required to deposit these federal taxes, along with their share of Social Security and Medicare taxes, with the IRS and file quarterly payroll tax returns (Form 941 series) with the IRS.

Under guidance that will be released next week, eligible employers who pay qualifying sick or child care leave will be able to retain an amount of the payroll taxes equal to the amount of qualifying sick and child care leave that they paid, rather than deposit them with the IRS.

The payroll taxes that are available for retention include withheld federal income taxes, the employee share of Social Security and Medicare taxes, and the employer share of Social Security and Medicare taxes with respect to all employees.

If there are not sufficient payroll taxes to cover the cost of qualified sick and child care leave paid, employers will be able file a request for an accelerated payment from the IRS. The IRS expects to process these requests in two weeks or less. The details of this new, expedited procedure will be announced next week. 

Examples

If an eligible employer paid $5,000 in sick leave and is otherwise required to deposit $8,000 in payroll taxes, including taxes withheld from all its employees, the employer could use up to $5,000 of the $8,000 of taxes it was going to deposit for making qualified leave payments. The employer would only be required under the law to deposit the remaining $3,000 on its next regular deposit date.

If an eligible employer paid $10,000 in sick leave and was required to deposit $8,000 in taxes, the employer could use the entire $8,000 of taxes in order to make qualified leave payments and file a request for an accelerated credit for the remaining $2,000.

Small Business Exemption

Small businesses with fewer than 50 employees will be eligible for an exemption from the leave requirements relating to school closings or child care unavailability where the requirements would jeopardize the ability of the business to continue. The exemption will be available on the basis of simple and clear criteria that make it available in circumstances involving jeopardy to the viability of an employer's business as a going concern. Labor will provide emergency guidance and rulemaking to clearly articulate this standard.

 

SUGGESTED PAYROLL PROCEDURES AT THIS TIME – 03/20/2020

1.    New payroll items will need to be set up to track payments being made to employees.  Possible ones to be used are Sick Leave – Coronavirus, Child Care Leave - Coronavirus and Family Leave – Coronavirus.  You can use any description you would like just need to keep each type separate due to how the credits are determined.

2.    Keep detailed information about hours being paid and how you calculated the credit that you are applying for each payroll used to reduce your 941 deposit.

 

There are going to be many updates to this information and more guidelines to come out in the next week.  We will continue to update you as soon as the information is available.  Please feel free to contact our office or me directly if you have questions about this information or need assistance with your payroll or calculating the credit to be used. 

 

Michele D Kendle

Supervisor

Albright Crumbacker Moul & Itell LLC

mkendle@albrightcpa.com

301-739-5300