Still no word on the SBA guidance we had hoped for this past Friday, but the end of the week did bring us some new info about the Restaurant Revitalization Fund.
On April 8th, Congresswoman Barbara Lee hosted a free informational webinar that was chock-full of excellent info. If you don’t have time to watch the full 41-minutes, then take a look at her twitter thread to see excerpts of the most frequently-asked questions.
Then on the following day, the National Restaurant Association released an informative updated FAQ about the RRF program. There are 39 questions in the FAQ and every one is worth reading. Please — whether you are a restaurant owner or you work with them… do your homework! I know we’re all exhausted, but this is too important not to: check it out. If you absolutely must read a summary for now, this “Nation’s Restaurant News” article does a nice job.
There were only two new pieces of info on the FAQ since the notes I took at the IRC webinar, as far as I could tell:
1) PPP loans are deducted from total eligible funds, but EIDLs and ERTCs will likely not be. This makes sense, since an Employee Retention Credit does not show up as income on a tax return, but it’s nice to know NRA doesn’t expect it to count as income, either.
2) The minimum grant award may be set at $1,000. This is apparently to address the effort that goes into applying — so many got paltry PPP loans unexpectedly and were frustrated at so little reward after so much effort.
It also reiterates the following details:
– The covered period may extend through March 2023
– Permanently closed and bankrupt businesses without reorganization plans are ineligible
– Businesses owned by women, veterans and socially/economically disadvantaged individuals will require self-certification
– Eligible expenses include maintenance and construction
– RRF grants will not be taxed as income, but are eligible for federal tax deductions
Cross your fingers for upcoming guidance from the SBA, a draft application, and a date for the program opening. We are hoping for at least a week’s notice between the draft being released and the program going live, so that small business owners and their accountants have sufficient time to prepare.
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