Texas got a liquidity lifeline last night. Abbott announced that all Texas counties have been included in the Economic Injury Disaster Declaration, which grants access to the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program. The program provides long-term, low-interest loans to small businesses (3.75%) and nonprofits (2.75%) with repayment terms up to 30 years. That’s great news for our local mom-and-pops and employers who are sinking fast.

The turnaround time for the Express loan is reported to be 36 hours. I’m a little skeptical, but I’ll let you know. We are prioritizing these applications and working as quickly as we can to help all of our clients. Bear with us, the 4506-T is already down this morning, and I started at 4am. I’ll keep trying throughout the day and let you know if I get one to go through. Click here to complete the online application at the SBA website.

Proposed: The Main Street Emergency Grant Program would offer grants to small, and possibly mid-sized businesses, and nonprofits to cover payroll and fixed costs, such as rent. The grants would be made avialable “quickly” to provide liquidity and avoid layoffs. This proposal has not been finalized.

Recommendation: Defer the Texas Franchise Tax payment and filing deadline until August 15th, 2020. The delay would defer preparation fees and tax payments for taxpayers, while allowing more time for tax return preparers to help clients navigate the current crisis. Please contact Glenn Hegar at the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts and encourage him to support this recommendation.

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~Mitzi E. Sullivan, CPA

Mitzi E. Sullivan, CPA is a cloud based professional services provider specializing in cloud accounting.