COVID-19 Update June 3, 2020

You might not be aware of the potentially detrimental details included in HR7010 (the House bill that passed last week).

First, they reduced the PPP loan expenditures dedicated to payroll from a minimum of 75% down to 60%. That sounds good on the outset, but currently, if you don’t hit the 75%, your forgiveness decreases proportionately. In HR7010, if you don’t hit the 60% minimum mandate, then 100% of your loan must be paid back. None of the proceeds would be forgiven.

Second, they increased the time in which you must spend the loan proceeds from 8 weeks to 24 weeks. They did not, however, change the FTE count that you must hit in order for the loan to be forgiven. Currently, you must match your FTE count from the 1st quarter 2020 in order for the loan to be forgiven. If you don’t, the forgivable percentage is decreased proportionality by your drop in the FTE count. So, the additional time may help you build your business back to the point where you can afford to employ your FTE count from Q1, but it will not reduce the forgiveness penalty if you miss that target.

There is language in this bill where you can request a waiver of this penalty due to the inability of your business to support hiring everyone back. We can safely assume that there are many more changes coming for forgiveness relief. There are just too many questions left in the air for the bureaucrats to decipher.

It’s currently a very fluid situation in Congress. The Senate is back in session, and today on the Senate floor, Democrats tried to get the House bill approved on a unanimous vote. Apparently, a Republican senator from Utah found a few parts of the bill disagreeable and voted no.

This means the Senate will argue the bill over the next week. If anything gets changed on the original House bill, then the Senate will have to send it back to the House to approve any changes before it goes to the President for his signature.

COVID-19 Relief, round 4 is still in process on both sides of the House. The only item we’re confident that will be included is the reduction of liability for businesses should anyone get the virus while on the job – unless, of course, there is total negligence on the part of the business.

There are rumors that the Senate version of the bill is supposed to be released for discussion later this week or early next week. The earliest possible date for any new COVID-19 relief legislation being passed would be after the 4th of July.

Today downloads:

• COVID-19 Survey 3 – This is an executive summary of the 3rd survey released by NAPEO, our national association, polling employers to assess their outlook on the economy, the PPP loan, and the impact of COVID-19. Definitely interesting stuff.
• Hispanic Partnership with DAS – Delta is honored to be working with the Hispanic Chamber of Louisiana on a program to put people back to work. Very excited to be able to give back to the community. Read this announcement to learn how.

If you know if anyone looking for work, please have them contact us.

Please remember to sign up for the webinar we will be putting on tomorrow, June 4, at 3 pm. In it, we will be reviewing the latest technology we’re rolling out to help you eliminate paperwork and move more HR functions online. Go here to secure your spot:

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/9130249306775377678