{"id":1179,"date":"2020-08-01T05:53:20","date_gmt":"2020-08-01T09:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saudercpa.com\/blog\/?p=1179"},"modified":"2020-07-31T19:24:23","modified_gmt":"2020-07-31T23:24:23","slug":"1179","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saudercpa.com\/blog\/2020\/08\/01\/1179\/","title":{"rendered":"The HEALS Act: A Boots on Sand Covid-19 Safeguard"},"content":{"rendered":"

Preface: Eight bills linked together comprise the pending HEALS Act legislation as a counter proposal to the HEROES Act, as additional Covid-19 relief measures are negotiated in Congress.<\/em><\/p>\n

The HEALS Act: A Boots on Sand Covid-19 Safeguard<\/strong><\/p>\n

Credit: Donald J. Sauder, CPA | CVA<\/strong><\/p>\n

Staring this week\u2019s Senate discussions, Republican Senators unveiled the next steps to safeguard the US economy from the possible risks of sinking sands amidst the coronavirus impact with a new bill \u2013 the Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection and Schools Act (HEALS). The new coronavirus relief provisions outlined in this pending legislation could bring $1.0 Trillion of additional economic relief funding.<\/p>\n

The bills package includes a buffet of economic legislation including $306.0 billion in emergency appropriation from the SAFE TO WORK act introduced from Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas), the Safely Back To Work and Back to School Act from Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee), the American Workers, Families, and Employers Assistance Act from Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the Continuing Small Business Recovery and Paycheck Protection Program Act from Marco Rubio (R-Florida) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), the Time to Rescue United States Trusts Act from Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Restoring Critical Supply Chains and Intellectual Property Act from Lindsey Graham (R \u2013 South Carolina).<\/p>\n

Relief Funds<\/strong><\/p>\n

First and foremost, the HEALS Act includes a second round of taxpayer stimulus checks like the CARES Act. This would provide qualifying taxpayers with $1,200 of relief funds for whatever spending purposes they so choose, with phase-outs on funds above $99,000 for individuals and $198,000 for couples. The Treasury announced these stimulus checks could arrive as early as August to qualifying taxpayers.<\/p>\n

Secondly, economic relief with extra unemployment benefits proposed at $200 per week, as an extension to the original CARES Act $600 per week additional UC benefit that expired July 31. The federal supplement would not exceed 70% of previous wages when combined with both state and federal assistance, to incentivize workers to look for gainful employment.<\/p>\n

The SAFE TO WORK Act proposal is designed to offer employers more durable protection from lawsuits brought from workplace coronavirus compliance risks. The Act would provide a guard to employers from personal injury lawsuits from coronavirus workplace risks. It would also place a ceiling on any awards, as long as employers did not demonstrate willful misconduct.<\/p>\n

Update on PPP Loans<\/strong><\/p>\n

The famous Paycheck Protection Program would be extended to December 31, 2020, for bolstering treasuries of the forty-plus percent of small businesses that are concerned with making payroll without the aid of a PPP subsidy. The second round on these financings on the forgivable PPP loans would be limited to business with 300 or fewer employees with special funding channeled to micro-businesses with ten or fewer employees to ensure small business loan equality. Also, legislation is pending on automatic loan forgiveness on PPP loans below $150,000. The forgiveness features of the PPP loans are in a continued state of fluctuation, and borrowers should be patient as the trends are continuing towards reducing fears of inability or hassle to obtain forgiveness on PPP loans below $2.0 Million.<\/p>\n

Also, a Long-Term Recovery Sector Loan facility would provide guaranteed long-term low-interest loans for working capital to businesses that equal up to two times annual revenues, with a $10.0 million ceiling. Maturity dates on these loans would be up to twenty years, with 1% interest rates. Eligible businesses would include 500 fewer employees that have seen declines in revenues of 50% or more in the first or second quarter of 2020 compared to 2019.<\/p>\n

School Funding<\/strong><\/p>\n

School funding features in the HEALS Act provide for $105.0 Billion to education, with $70.0 billion allocated to grade schools and $29.0 for colleges and universities. The emergency funding would offer scholarships to parents to send children to private schools and funding for private schools based on certain stipulations and student numbers.<\/p>\n

The bill proposed from Tim Scott (R-South Carolina) would provide a tax deduction of 100% for business meals to give relief to\u00a0support America\u2019s restaurant workers.<\/p>\n

Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n

While the HEALS Act is pending, the significance of the additional relief package, if approved, will bring a new wave of economic relief awaiting a tide to turn on the Covid-19 tribulations.<\/p>\n

This article is general in nature, and it does not contain legal advice. \u00a0Contact your advisors to discuss your specific situation<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Preface: Eight bills linked together comprise the pending HEALS Act legislation as a counter proposal to the HEROES Act, as additional Covid-19 relief measures are negotiated in Congress. The HEALS Act: A Boots on Sand Covid-19 Safeguard Credit: Donald J. Sauder, CPA | CVA Staring this week\u2019s Senate discussions, Republican Senators unveiled the next steps … Continue reading “The HEALS Act: A Boots on Sand Covid-19 Safeguard”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saudercpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saudercpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saudercpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saudercpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saudercpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1179"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.saudercpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1186,"href":"https:\/\/www.saudercpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179\/revisions\/1186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saudercpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saudercpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saudercpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}