Small Businesses & Nonprofits

UPDATE: As of January 2022, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is unable to accept new applications for COVID-19 relief loans or grants. SBA will continue to offer PPP loan forgiveness and EIDL increases.

UPDATE: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has announced a new emergency temporary standard.

Congress has passed several rounds of financial assistance and relief in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which was signed into law on March 11, 2021.  

Struggling to get started? The following questions might help point you in the right direction. Do you need:

This program provides cash-flow assistance through 100 percent federally guaranteed loans to employers who maintain their payroll during this emergency. If employers maintain their payroll, the loans would be forgiven, which would help workers remain employed, as well as help affected small businesses and our economy snap-back quicker after the crisis. PPP has a host of attractive features, such as forgiveness of up to 8 weeks of payroll based on employee retention and salary levels, no SBA fees, and at least six months of deferral with maximum deferrals of up to a year. 

Per the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2021, PPP expenses are now tax deductible.

UPDATE (06.09.2021): SBA Notice: The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) ended on May 31, 2021. Existing borrowers may be eligible for PPP loan forgiveness.

SBA, in consultation with the Treasury Department, has also recently released additional PPP guidance:

If you receive assistance from the PPP program, you are not able to receive assistance from the Employee Retention Credit for Employers Subject to Closure or Experiencing Economic Hardship.

Small business owners, including agricultural businesses, and nonprofit organizations in all U.S. states, Washington D.C., and territories can apply for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan. The EIDL program is designed to provide economic relief to businesses that are currently experiencing a temporary loss of revenue due to COVID-19. 

UPDATE: COVID EIDL is no longer accepting new applications but will continue to accept requests for increases, reconsideration, and appeals.

As of January 1, 2022, SBA is not able to accept applications for new COVID EIDL loans or advances.

SBA will accept and review reconsideration and appeal requests for COVID EIDL applications received on or before December 31 if the reconsideration/appeal is received within the timeframes in the regulation. This means six months from the date of decline for reconsiderations and 30 days from the date of reconsideration decline for appeals – unless funding is no longer available.

Borrowers can request increases up to their maximum eligible loan amount for up to two years after their loan origination date, or until the funds are exhausted, whichever is soonest.

SBA will continue to review and approve Targeted Advance applications received prior to the December 31, 2021, deadline.

As of January 1, 2022, SBA can no longer review or approve Supplemental Targeted Advance applications.

As of January 1, 2022, declined Targeted Advance applicants may submit one request for reevaluation. The deadline for reevaluation requests is February 15, 2022.

SBA continues to offer other funding options for small businesses including traditional SBA loans.

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 provides $25 billion nationwide for a new SBA program specifically for restaurants and other food and drinking establishments impacted by the pandemic. The grants of up to $10 million per business ($5 million per physical location) can be used for a wide variety of expenses. Eligible entities include restaurants, food stands and food trucks, caterers, bars and lounges, brewpubs and tasting rooms, inns, taverns, and similar businesses, including those located in airport terminals.

This program provides grants to shuttered venues, to be administered by the SBA’s Office of Disaster Assistance.

Eligible applicants may qualify for Shuttered Venue Operators Grants equal to 45% of their gross earned revenue, with the maximum amount available for a single grant award of $10 million. $2 billion is reserved for eligible applications with up to 50 full-time employees.

To ensure eligible venues do not miss a window to receive assistance through the Paycheck Protection Program, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 also amended the SVOG program so entities that apply for a PPP loan after Dec. 27, 2020, can also apply for an SVOG, with the eligible entity’s SVOG to be reduced by the PPP loan amount. The PPP loan applications have been updated to reflect this.

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 provides full federal reimbursement to states for payments made under work share programs through September 6, 2021. These programs can avoid layoffs by sharing hour reductions among workers and providing them pro-rated unemployment benefits. In Wisconsin’s work share program, at least 20 workers must be affected to be eligible and the maximum amount their hours can be reduced is 50 percent. For general information and guidance for employers interested in participating in the Wisconsin Work-Share Program please click here. 

If you, like many small business owners, need a business counselor to help guide you through this uncertain time, you can turn to your local Small Business Development Center (SBDC), Women’s Business Center (WBC), or SCORE mentorship chapter. These resource partners, and the associations that represent them, will receive additional funds to expand their reach and better support small business owners with counseling and up-to-date information regarding COVID-19. There will soon be a joint platform that consolidates information and resources related to COVID-19 in order to provide consistent, timely information to small businesses. Click here for more information regarding counseling and training.

For help applying for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan and to access other loan resources available to Wisconsin businesses courtesy of the Wisconsin Small Business Development Center Network, please click here. 

For information and resources available to small businesses courtesy of the Wisconsin Women's Business Initiative Corporation (WWBIC) please click here. 

For contact information for your local SCORE mentorship chapter, please click here.

For local and state resources available to small businesses courtesy of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, please click here. 

If you are a government contractor, there are a number of ways that Congress has provided relief and protection for your business. Agencies will be able to modify terms and conditions of a contract and to reimburse contractors at a billing rate of up to 40 hours per week of any paid leave, including sick leave. The contractors eligible are those whose employees or subcontractors cannot perform work on site and cannot telework due to federal facilities closing because of COVID-19.     

If you need additional assistance, please reach out to your local Small Business Development Center, Women’s Business Center, SCORE chapter, or SBA District Office (see above). You should also work with your agency’s contracting officer, as well as the agency’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU).

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently announced that PPP loan recipients whose loans are forgiven are not required to treat the loan proceeds as taxable income and can deduct expenses paid with a forgiven PPP loan from their taxes. The Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2021 explicitly included this change, which was based bipartisan Small Business Expense Protection Act that Senator Baldwin supported.

Many businesses that have been severely impacted by coronavirus (COVID-19) will qualify for new employer tax credits.

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 allows small and midsize employers, and certain governmental employers, to claim refundable tax credits that reimburse them for the cost of providing paid sick and family leave to their employees due to COVID-19, including leave taken by employees to receive or recover from COVID-19 vaccinations. The ARP tax credits are available to eligible employers that pay sick and family leave for leave from April 1, 2021, through September 30, 2021.

For more details from the U.S. Department of the Treasury on how the paid leave tax credits from the American Rescue Plan will work for employers to enable employees to get vaccinated and recover from after-effects of vaccination, as well as for other purposes, click here. 

An employee who is unable to work (including telework) because of coronavirus quarantine or self-quarantine or has coronavirus symptoms and is seeking a medical diagnosis, is entitled to paid sick leave for up to ten days (up to 80 hours) at the employee’s regular rate of pay, or, if higher, the Federal minimum wage or any applicable State or local minimum wage, up to $511 per day, but no more than $5,110 in total.

An employee who is unable to work due to caring for someone with coronavirus, or caring for a child because the child’s school or place of care is closed, or the paid child care provider is unavailable due to the coronavirus, is entitled to paid sick leave for up to two weeks (up to 80 hours) at two-thirds the employee’s regular rate of pay or, if higher, the Federal minimum wage or any applicable State or local minimum wage, up to $200 per day, but no more than $2,000 in total.

An employee who is unable to work because of a need to care for a child whose school or place of care is closed or whose child care provider is unavailable due to the coronavirus, is also entitled to paid family and medical leave equal to two-thirds of the employee’s regular pay, up to $200 per day and $10,000 in total. Up to ten weeks of qualifying leave can be counted towards the family leave credit. 

Note: The emergency paid "sick leave" and expanded "family and medical leave" requirements of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act of 2020 are no longer mandated as of December 31, 2020.  Under the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2021, the refundable tax credit for sick and family leave was extended until March 31, 2021 for employers who opt to provide it. If the employee has already used this leave in 2020, employers cannot claim the credit for that employee in 2021. 

Employers should consult with an attorney and/or a tax professional if they have questions regarding leave requirements and tax credits.

Eligible employers are entitled to receive a credit in the full amount of the required sick leave and family leave, plus related health plan expenses and the employer’s share of Medicare tax on the leave, for the period of April 1, 2020, through December 31, 2020.  The refundable credit is applied against certain employment taxes on wages paid to all employees. Eligible employers can reduce federal employment tax deposits in anticipation of the credit.  They can also request an advance of the paid sick and family leave credits for any amounts not covered by the reduction in deposits. The advanced payments will be issued by paper check to employers.

Eligible employers can claim the employee retention credit, a refundable tax credit equal to 50 percent of up to $10,000 in qualified wages (including health plan expenses), paid after March 12, 2020 and before January 1, 2021.  Eligible employers are those businesses with operations that have been partially or fully suspended due to governmental orders due to COVID-19, or businesses that have a significant decline in gross receipts compared to 2019.

The refundable credit is capped at $5,000 per employee and applies against certain employment taxes on wages paid to all employees.  Eligible employers can reduce federal employment tax deposits in anticipation of the credit.  They can also request an advance of the employee retention credit for any amounts not covered by the reduction in deposits. The advanced payments will be issued by paper check to employers.

The IRS has developed an online tool to help you determine if you or your business is likely to qualify for one or more of the tax relief options currently available.

IRS.gov/coronavirus is the official IRS source for information on relief related to COVID-19. Be on the lookout for scam artists trying to use this relief as cover to steal personal information and money. The IRS will not call, text, email or contact anyone on social media asking for personal or bank account information. Also, watch out for emails with attachments or links claiming to have special information on relief. 

Click here for more information from the IRS on coronavirus tax relief for businesses and tax-exempt entities. 

Publication 5420-D, A Toolkit for IRS Partners - Small Business Relief: Employer Tax Credits, Paid leave for employees, & Relief for compliance efforts PDF

Publication 5420-E, A Toolkit for IRS Partners – COVID-19 Relief for: Tax Exempt Organizations PDF

Disclaimer: The information provided on this webpage does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal or tax preparation advice from Senator Baldwin. All information, content, and materials available on this page are for general informational purposes only.