During the COVID-19 pandemic, many employees and their families have lost group health plan coverage because of layoffs or reduced hours. If your business has had to take such steps, and it’s required to offer continuing health care coverage under COBRA, the recently passed American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) includes some critical provisions that you should be aware of.During the COVID-19 pandemic, many employees and their families have lost group health plan coverage because of layoffs or reduced hours. If your business has had to take such steps, and it’s required to offer continuing health care coverage under COBRA, the recently passed American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) includes some critical provisions that you should be aware of.

President Biden has signed the PPP Extension Act of 2021. The new law extends the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) application filing deadline from March 31, 2021, to May 31, 2021, thus providing potential PPP borrowers additional time to submit their applications. The law doesn’t provide the PPP with any additional funding. However, $7.25 billion in additional funding was recently provided in the American Rescue Plan Act.

Many businesses have retained employees during the COVID-19 pandemic and enjoyed tax relief with the help of the employee retention credit (ERC). The recent signing of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) brings good news: the ERC has been extended yet again.

The new American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) provides eligible families with an enhanced child and dependent care credit for 2021. This is the credit available for expenses a taxpayer pays for the care of qualifying children under the age of 13 so that the taxpayer can be gainfully employed.

Note that a credit reduces your tax bill dollar for dollar.

The Employee Retention Credit (ERC), which was created to encourage employers to keep their workforces intact during the COVID-19 pandemic, has been with us for a year. But questions about it remain for many employers. With the new American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) extending the credit and expanding eligibility — and the credit worth as much as $28,000 per employee for 2021 — employers should brush up on the details.

The IRS has announced that the federal income tax filing deadline for individuals for the 2020 tax year is extended from April 15, 2021, until Monday, May 17, 2021. The IRS extended the deadline to provide relief to taxpayers facing challenges as a result of the pandemic and because it’s grappling with a rising backlog of 24 million unprocessed returns. As part of its announcement, the IRS stated it would soon be issuing additional guidance about the deadline extension.

Congress has passed the latest legislation aimed at providing economic and other relief from the COVID-19 pandemic that has haunted the country for the last year. President Biden is expected to sign the 628-page American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which includes $1.9 trillion in funding for individuals, businesses, and state and local governments.

The American Rescue Plan Act, signed into law on March 11, provides a variety of tax and financial relief to help mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here are some answers to questions about these payments.