COVID Relief for Kansas Businesses
To all of our Kansas business clients impacted by COVID – which is pretty much everyone – we wanted to highlight a Kansas program that is available beginning tomorrow, August 19th. There is a “Small Business Working Capital Grants” program that will award grants to companies until funds are depleted.
ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS
Must be a for-profit or not-for-profit business owned and/or operated in the state of Kansas.
Business must have 500 or fewer employees.
Business must have been in operation since July 1, 2019.
Business must be in good standing with the Kansas Secretary of State.
Business must be able to demonstrate a loss of at least 25% of gross revenues from January 1, 2020-June 30, 2020, over the previous period of January 1, 2019-June 30, 2019. *If a business was not in operation Jan. 1-June 30, 2019, revenues from July 1-Dec. 31, 2019 can/should be used.
Business plans to use all awarded funds exclusively for working capital expenses and can articulate how the funds will be used.
The business must not have received more than $350,000 in prior COVID-related local, state and/or federal funding.
Awarded funds may not be used to duplicate any expenses paid for by previous local, state or federal CARES Act funding programs.
AWARD AMOUNTS & NOTIFICATION
Maximum award amounts will vary by business activity. While businesses may request the maximum grant amount for their category, there is no guarantee the maximum amount will be received.
Award determinations will be made on a number of factors including business activity type, number of employees, lost revenue due to COVID-19, future plans for business resiliency, etc.
Grants will be awarded on a rolling basis until funds have been depleted.
A formal grant agreement will be required prior to any funds being awarded.
The link to the application is below:
https://kansasdepartmentofcommerce.formstack.com/forms/small_business_working_capital
Payroll Tax Holiday
President Trump signed an Executive Order for a payroll tax holiday to begin September 1st and run through December 31st. Guidance is still being sought on this order, but a summary is listed below:
“Payroll taxes” are the Social Security and Medicare taxes paid on wages and self-employment income. The executive order delays the withholding and payment of the employee Social Security portion only. That amounts to 6.2% on the first $137,700 in wages.
The order is written for this to be a delay and not a permanent holiday, so those taxes that are delayed and not paid in during this time period would need to be withheld/paid at a later time. Timing for repayment is not clear.
It is unclear if employers are required to participate. We believe the intent of the order is for it to be mandatory participation in the tax holiday.
