Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA)

A:Hello, this is Pat O'Connor of the O'Connor Law Firm and today what I would like to do is talk with you about the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. What is that? It's basically an extension of the Family Medical Leave Act. Under the old law, if you had more than 50 employees and you had an employee that was pregnant, or somebody that needed to go home and take care of a sick loved one, they were able to take up to 12 weeks off and still come back to their job. The First Family Coronavirus Response Act sort of expands that and now applies to pretty much all employers. What is it what does it do? Well, here's how it works, there's two components to it. The first component is basically the emergency paid sick leave the second component is the emergency Family and Medical Leave Act and I want to talk first about the emergency paid sick leave. That applies to the employee him or herself. If the employee comes to you and says: look I've been quarantined by the doctor, I have the coronavirus or I have the symptoms, Then, they're entitled to take up to two weeks off at full pay up to a maximum of $511 per day or a total amount of $5,110. So basically they get the lesser of what their actual pay is or $511 for, you know, that period of time. Now there's also the second component to this emergency paid sick leave in if they, for example, have a child that has been told that they can't go to school anymore because of the corona virus. Then they're entitled to 2/3 of their pay up to a maximum of $200 per day $2,000 in the aggregate over the two-week period of time to go home and take care of that child. So that's pretty much how that works. The second part of this act deals with the emergency Family and Medical Leave Act. In essence, if they have, for example, a child that's been told that they can't go to school anymore because of the corona virus and they're now at home, this gives the employee the right to go home and care for that child and up to 12 weeks and they're entitled, the employee is entitled, again to the lesser of $200 per day or 2/3 of their pay up to a maximum amount of $10,000 in the aggregate. So what's in it for the employer? How do how do they get compensated for this? Well there's two things. 1. is you get a tax credit with regards to your payroll taxes. What is a credit? The credit is a dollar-for-dollar reduction in your taxes. All right, if there's $1,000 in taxes and you have $1,000 credit the two cancel each other out and go away. So it's better than an expense item. And then the other thing that you need to sort of avail yourself of, and this is so very important, there's another program out there called the Payroll Protection Program or PPP. What that is, is where the government has set aside I think three hundred or three hundred fifty billion dollars, a lot of money. They're talking about maybe even increasing that by another two hundred fifty billion dollars, where a business can apply for a loan and as long as they use it for their payroll, rent and interest expense on a mortgage payment or utilities then the money you receive on this loan is forgivable and not includable in income. Which means that it's like a grant, it's really not a lone, and you're entitled to basically two and a half times the amount of what your monthly average payroll is for your business. So it's a wonderful program if you haven't applied for it do so. I mean, I can't stress enough how important it is for you to go in and get that loan. I have business owners that come to me and say well right now everything's fine. It's like great, but, you know, what it's gonna be like in 30 days or 60 or 90 days? We don't know. If you don't need the loan you can always pay it back. But if you need it, it's there, and if you use it for the right things it's forgivable. So, be aware of this Family's First Coronavirus Response Act. It's out there. Also be aware of the loan programs that are available. If you have any questions, please give us a call. My name is Pat O'Connor. My phone number is 727-539-6800. That's 727-539-6800. My email address is pat@yourpersonalattorney.com. That’s spelled out your personal attorney.com Thanks for listening. Stay safe. Have a good day. I'll be talking to you, thanks.