Louisiana Offers Business Tax Relief due to COVID-19

Louisiana has announced various forms of Business relief available.

Sales and Excise tax

The Department of revenue has issued guidance to provide filing and payment extensions for certain taxes due on March 20, 2020.

February sales tax, excise tax returns and payments are extended to May 20 by automatic extension. All penalties and interest will be waived if payment is received by May 20, 2020. Taxpayers will need to file sales tax returns and payments through LaTap or paper filing. Parish Efile and Sales tax online will not be set up to handle the extension relief.

To follow, East Baton Rouge has announced that sales tax returns and payments for February will be extended until April 20, 2020, and March returns and payments will be extended until May 20,2020.

Unemployment tax and assistance

The Louisiana workforce commission has announced that all Louisiana employers will get a deferral from paying first quarter 2020 unemployment tax. Employers are still required to file wage reports by April 30, 2020, but payments can be deferred until June 30, 2020. LWC is providing details on unemployment on their website http://www.laworks.net/. Here you can find guidelines and information regarding unemployment insurance for employers and workers affected by the crisis.

Under new guidelines issued by the U.S. Department of Labor, the state is now permitted to pay benefits to workers when:

  1. An employer temporarily ceases operations due to COVID-19, preventing employees from  coming to work

  2.  An individual is quarantined with the expectation of returning to work after the quarantine is over

  3. An individual leaves employment due to a risk of exposure or infection or to care for a family member

These new provisions do not require an employee to quit in order to receive benefits due to the impact of COVID-19, nor will employees have to conduct the usual job search required of Unemployment Compensation recipients.

Business loans

The governor has also announced that all parishes are eligible for COVID-19 business aid through federal Small Business administration disaster aid. They are offering up to $2 million in loan assistance at a 3.75% interest rate. There is a three step process to obtain a disaster loan explained here: https://disasterloan.sba.gov/ela/Documents/Three_Step_Process_SBA_Disaster_Loans.pdf.

The following link has been set up to apply for assistance:

https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/disaster-assistance

Further information

The following are sites offering a plethora of information for businesses:

LED - https://www.opportunitylouisiana.com/covid-19-assistance

LABI - https://labi.org/newsroom/combat-coronavirus

IRS - https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus

We are following current legislation and will be updating as new programs are announced. If you have any questions, please reach out to us with your concerns. We are here to help!

Faulk & Winkler

Alex Tucker, CPA

Partner

COVID-19Lainey Eddlemon