Vermont Chamber Successfully Advances COVID-19 Crisis Priorities
"Phase III” Federal Relief Package Advances
Meals and Rooms Tax Filing Deadline Extended
Essential Business Determination Guidance Issued
Unemployment Insurance Changes Advance
Significant State Revenue Shortfalls Anticipated
Vermont Jobless Claims Spike Due to COVID-19 Layoffs
In Case You Missed It
Vermont Chamber Successfully Advances COVID-19 Crisis Priorities
The Vermont Chamber continues to dedicate 100% of our staff and resources to assisting businesses during this COVID-19 crisis. Some of our recent successes include: Department of Taxes (DoT) action that indefinitely relieves businesses from Meals and Rooms Tax filing and penalty deadlines for March and April payments, a 90-day extension on the income tax filing deadline, and the advancement of legislation that protects employers forced to layoff workers due to COVID-19 from having their unemployment insurance experience ratings negatively impacted.
The Vermont Chamber recognizes that the needs of Vermont’s businesses impacted by the COVID-19 crisis are far from met. We will continue to advocate for meaningful financial and regulatory relief in the coming weeks and months.
"Phase III” Federal Relief Package Advances
Congress passed H.R.748, the CARES Act which includes $377 billion included for small business relief. The bill provides $350 billion in loan forgiveness grants to small businesses and non-profits to maintain existing workforce and help pay for other expenses like rent, mortgage, and utilities; $10 billion for Small Business Administration (SBA ) emergency grants of up to $10,000 to provide immediate relief for small business operating costs, and $17 billion for the SBA to cover 6 months of payments for small businesses with existing SBA loans.
Unemployment insurance (UI) resources include $260 billion to facilitate paycheck replacement amounting to a $600 per week increase for every American, which equates to 100 percent of wages for the average American without a paycheck struggling through the crisis, and allows for the extension of benefits to provide an additional 13 weeks of federally-funded unemployment insurance benefits to be available immediately. Additionally, the bill expands access to unemployment by allowing part-time, self-employed, and gig economy workers to access UI benefits.
To accommodate additional crisis response, the legislation provides $1 billion for the Defense Production Act to bolster domestic supply chains, enabling industry to increase production of personal protective equipment, ventilators, and other urgently needed medical supplies and $3.5 billion in additional funding for the Child Care Development Block Grant (CDBG) to provide child care assistance to health care sector employees, emergency responders, sanitation workers, and other workers deemed essential during the response to the COVID-19 crisis. It also allocates more than $6.5 billion in Federal funding for CDBG, the Economic Development Administration, and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership to help mitigate the local economic crisis and rebuild impacted industries, such as tourism or manufacturing supply chains, and $562 million to help small businesses by ensuring SBA has the resources to provide Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) to businesses that need financial support.
In perhaps its most widely impactful provision, the legislation also provides all U.S. residents with adjusted gross income up to $75,000 ($150,000 for married couples) a $1,200 ($2,400 for couples) “rebate” payment with additional eligibility of $500 per child. The payments would start phasing out for earners above those income thresholds and would not go to single filers earning more than $99,000, head-of-household filers with one child earning more than $146,500, and joint filers with no children earning more than $198,000.
The Vermont Chamber is in daily contact with Vermont’s Congressional delegation and our Washington, D.C. counterparts to advocate for relief that appropriately responds to the needs of Vermont businesses impacted by COVID-19.
Meals and Rooms Tax Filing Deadline Extended
After a coordinated push by the Vermont Chamber and our industry partners, Governor Scott directed the Commissioner of Taxes to exercise his authority to provide relief to Vermont businesses that owe Meals and Rooms Tax or Sales and Use Tax. As a result of COVID-19 related closures and associated economic downturn, many local businesses are unable to meet the March 25 and April 25 filing deadlines. The Administration’s actions mean that business owners that are unable to meet the original deadlines will not be charged any penalty or interest on these taxes for late submissions. Further guidance on recent tax changes can be found on the Vermont Department of Taxes COVID-19 tax factsheet.
The Vermont Chamber will continue to advocate for full abatement of the Meals and Rooms Tax through future legislative action. While legislators spent much of this week addressing other immediate crisis response matters, key legislators assured the Vermont Chamber that conversations around abatement will continue next week.
Essential Business Determination Guidance Issued
Governor Scott recently issued Addendum 6 to Executive order 01-20, requiring non-essential businesses to cease in-person operations. The Addendum permits certain business operations essential to COVID-19 response, public safety, medical care, or support of critical infrastructure. If you feel your business is essential to public wellbeing, but not permitted to operate by Addendum 6, the Agency of Commerce and Community Development (ACCD) is encouraging businesses with questions or requests regarding the acceptable continuation of business operations to complete this online form. ACCD has received thousands of these requests in the last few days and has dedicated additional resources to address the backlog. ACCD has also issued sector specific guidance to help business owners in determining how their business is impacted.
In the days following Governor Scott’s initial Executive Order declaring a state of emergency, the Administration has issued various Addendums and Directives to supplement and amend the original declaration.
Unemployment Insurance Changes Advance
The Vermont House and Senate met this week to vote on rule changes that establish the framework necessary to allow remote voting and to pass legislation that provides additional resources for the COVID-19 response. One piece of legislation sent to the Governor’s desk, H.742, would temporarily expand unemployment insurance (UI) eligibility benefits to those who leave work voluntarily for COVID-19 related issues, including taking care of a family member, school age children with no daycare or open school, and to avoid unreasonable risk (defined as a workplace out of compliance with public health guidance) at the workplace.
Additionally, H.742 also protects employers from UI rate increases as a result of laying off employees because of circumstances related to the crisis – a provision for which the Vermont Chamber advocated heavily in the days leading up the March 13 emergency adjournment.
Significant State Revenue Shortfalls Anticipated
With thousands of Vermonters out of work and entire sectors of the economy shuttered, state leaders are bracing for tax revenue shortfalls. The State has taken a number of actions to provide immediate liquidity to businesses and individuals with some expectation of federal relief to sustain depleted state funds. The recently US Senate-passed CARES Act is anticipated to provide individual states with a minimum of $1.25 billion in funds to be used to replace expenditures incurred due to the COVID-19 public health emergency between March 1 and December 30, 2020 in situations where the expenditure was not previously accounted for in Vermont’s most recently approved budget. The full extent to which these federal funds can be used to replace depleted state accounts remains unclear.
The Vermont Chamber will continue to work with state and federal leaders to ensure additional relief and stimulus packages provide businesses with the resources necessary to continue or restart operations in the coming weeks and months.
Vermont Jobless Claims Spike Due to COVID-19 Layoffs
The Vermont Department of Labor (VDoL) received 14,784 claims for unemployment last week, and all-time record which is three times the number of claims VDoL received during the Great Recession of 2008.
The spike in unemployment claims in Vermont mirrors what is occurring nationally because of COVID-19 related layoffs.
This Edition Sponsored By UPS
Want great exposure for your business? Sponsoring the weekly newsletter is an affordable and effective way to reach your target customers. Email Megan Bullard for pricing and more information.
RSS Feed