Financial Relief Check-Up
There are numerous local and national programs for businesses in need of emergency support, but understanding which options are relevant for your medical practice can be a challenge.
Find Out What Aid Applies to You in 3 Minutes or Less
The Maryland Business Relief Wizard is a tool that helps connect businesses with the resources and programming for which they’re eligible on the city, county, state, and national levels, streamlining the process of finding support. Use the Relief Wizard.
Don’t Miss Out! Tax Credit for Keeping Employees on Staff
Don’t miss the most overlooked relief aid opportunity for medical practices–the Employee Retention Credit! The updated Employee Retention Credit (ERC) provides a refundable credit of up to $5,000 for each full-time equivalent employee you retained between March 13 and Dec. 31, 2020, and up to $14,000 for each retained employee between January 1 and June 30, 2021.
You qualify as an employer if you were ordered to fully or partially shut down or if your gross receipts fell below 50% for the same quarter in 2019 (for 2020) and below 80% (for 2021). If you were not in business in 2019, you could use the corresponding quarters from 2020. You can claim your credit immediately by reducing payroll taxes sent to the IRS. If your credits exceed payroll taxes, you can request a direct refund from the IRS.
The new law, retroactive to March 27, 2020, now allows employers who received Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to claim the ERC for qualified wages not treated as payroll costs in obtaining forgiveness of the PPP loan.
To learn more, visit this resource article or access MCMS’s webinar on the topic, featuring a local accounting firm.
Automatic Unemployment Tax Relief for Maryland Small Businesses
On December 10, Governor Hogan issued an executive order to prevent small businesses from facing major increases in their unemployment taxes. Under this order, an employer’s 2021 tax rate will be calculated based on their non-pandemic experience by excluding the 2020 fiscal year, and instead by using the last three fiscal years of 2017, 2018, and 2019. A change in the law is necessary to enable this policy to remain in place beyond the state of emergency. Combined, the executive order and the RELIEF Act provide $326 million in relief.
In addition, it would allow small businesses and nonprofits with fewer than 50 employees to defer unemployment insurance tax payments in the calendar year 2021 to January 2022.