Families First Coronavirus Response Act Part 1 of 2: Small Employer Tax Credits
March 23, 2020
Authored by: Randy Scherer, Lisa Van Fleet and Steve Evans
The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“FFCRA“) generally requires U.S. employers with fewer than 500 employees (“Small Employers”) to provide paid sick leave and additional FMLA benefits to their employees.[1] You can read our summary of the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act and the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act here and here, respectively.
In order to offset some of the costs these provisions impose on Small Employers, the FFCRA also provides a quarterly payroll tax credit equal to 100% of the qualified sick and leave wages paid to employees under the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act and the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act.
The amount of leave wages taken into account is limited with respect to each individual employee for purposes of the credit.
- For sick leave wages paid due to an employee’s illness or quarantine, the amount of wages taken into account for purposes of the credit is capped at $511 per day and $5,110 in the aggregate for each employee; and
- For sick leave wages paid due to an employee’s need to care for others or care for the employee’s child(ren) due to school closures[2], the amount of wages taken into account for purposes of the credit is capped is $200 per day and $2,000 in the aggregate for each employee. Sick leave wages under the FFCRA are available for a maximum of 2 weeks (10 days).