The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) provides two self-employed tax credits to help cover the cost of taking time off due to COVID-19. While most of the text in these laws apply to businesses with employees, it also applies to self-employed individuals.
The tax credit for paid sick leave applies to eligible self-employed taxpayers who are unable to work (including telework or working remotely) due to:
- Being subject to a federal, state, or local quarantine or isolation order due to COVID-19.
- Being advised by a health care provider to self-quarantine due to COVID-19. Experiencing COVID-19-related symptoms and seeking a medical diagnosis. If you meet all the requirements, you would be eligible for qualified sick leave for each day during the year that you were unable to work for the above reasons (up to 10 days). The tax credit is worth the lesser of $511 per day or 100% of your average daily self-employment income for the year per day.
- The only days that may be considered in determining the qualified sick leave equivalent amount are days occurring during the period beginning on April 1, 2020 and ending on December 31, 2020.
Under the expanded Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provision of the FFCRA, you would be eligible for qualified family leave for each day that you were unable to work because you were caring for someone else impacted by COVID-19 (up to 10 days), or your child’s school or childcare provider was closed or unavailable due to COVID-19 (up to 50 days). You can claim a tax credit for the lesser of $200 per day or 67% of your average daily self-employment income for the year per day.
How do I calculate and claim these tax credits?
The “average daily self-employment income” is calculated as your net earnings from self-employment during the tax year, divided by 260. An individual can claim a credit for both qualified sick leave and qualified family leave, but not both for the same time periods. You can claim both the tax credit for paid sick leave and the tax credit for paid family leave on your 2020 Form 1040 tax return. However, you do not have to wait until the next tax-filing season to benefit from these credits
Employee Retention Credit
If you have employees, the Employee Retention Credit (ERC) can help you cover the cost of keeping idle workers on your payroll during the pandemic. The tax credit is worth half of what you spent on wages and employee health plan costs after March 12, 2020, and before January 1, 2021, up to $10,000 per worker.
To qualify, your business must have one of the following:
- A full or partial suspension of its operations due to governmental orders limiting commerce, travel, or group meetings due to COVID-19.
- A sufficient decline in gross receipts compared to 2019. The decline begins when there is a 50% drop in a calendar quarter compared to the same quarter in the prior year. The decline does not end until a calendar quarter reaches 80% of the same prior-year quarter. This means that if a quarter drops to less than 50% and the following quarter is at 70%, there is still a decline.
You can claim this credit by reducing your payroll tax deposits. If your employment tax deposits are not enough to cover the full credit, you can get an advance from the IRS by filing Form 7200.
If you received a Paycheck Protection Program loan, you cannot also claim the ERC. You can claim both the paid leave credits and the ERC but not on the same wages.
For more information, contact your tax advisor and/or visit the U.S. Department of Labor website: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/pandemic/ffcra-employer-paid-leave
Any accounting, business or tax advice contained in this communication, including attachments and enclosures, is not intended as a thorough, in-depth analysis of specific issues, nor a substitute for a formal opinion, nor is it sufficient to avoid tax-related penalties.