Saturday, April 04, 2020

Billy Long: Information about COVID-19 relief eligibility

(From Seventh District Congressman Billy Long)

Last week, President Trump signed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act into law, delivering much-needed relief to American workers and families.

In order to slow the spread of the virus, business owners across the country have been forced to close their doors, leaving countless employees to wonder how they will pay their bills. The CARES Act will offer direct and immediate relief to Americans through economic impact payments and other benefits.

One of the top priorities of this bill is to provide immediate financial relief for millions of Americans who are struggling to pay their bills in the wake of the coronavirus. The bill offers a one-time tax rebate check of $1,200 per individual and $500 per child with a valid social security number. 









The full amount is available to those earning $75,000 or less, $112,500 for the head of the household, and $150,000 for married couples. 

The credit phases out entirely for individuals who make more than $99,000 or joint filers who make more than $198,000. Eligibility will be based on your most recently filed tax returns; eligibility for Social Security (retirement and disability) and Railroad Retirement beneficiaries who are not required to file a tax return will be determined based off of information on the form SSA-1099 or Form RRB-1099. For more information, visit www.irs.gov/coronavirus

The bill also loosens rules on retirement accounts, allowing older Americans that are subject to mandatory minimum distributions from retirement accounts to keep their capital invested instead of being forced to draw down on their capital without penalty, which would be suspended for 2020. 

The bill also waives the 10% penalty on coronavirus-related early distributions from 401(k)s and IRA, which applies to distributions made at any time of 2020. College students are also feeling the crunch, which is why the bill pauses federal student loan repayment for up to six months and employer-sponsored repayment of student loans will not be counted as taxable income for 2020.

Businesses across the country are struggling and desperately need relief to stay afloat and make payroll. Employers that continue to pay furloughed employees may be eligible for a 50% credit on up to $10,000 in wages paid to those employees. 

This lifeline will help workers keep their jobs, help local businesses ride out the storm, and ensure that furloughed employees have jobs to return to. Businesses can delay payment on 2020 payroll taxes until 2021 and 2022, creating $300 billion in cash flow for businesses. They are also able to carry back losses up to five years, clearing the way for immediate tax refunds.

The Coronavirus’ impact is widespread, and American businesses and families across the country are hurting. We are hopeful that this relief package will offer some security for American families and workers as we all do our part to practice social distancing and decrease the spread of this virus. If you have additional questions about eligibility, please do not hesitate to contact my office directly or visit my website at long.house.gov.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

So the virus isn't going away like the president said it would?

The president didn't actually keep it out of the USA by closing the borders? Like he said he did?

Nice work.

Another 'Mission Accomplished' for Republicans.

Heckuva job Brownie.

Now he has his son-in-law Jared running the response. Billy I can say that in my opinion Jared is apparently not the sharpest knife in the drawer, even by the low standards of this administration. What say you Billy Long?

Anonymous said...

10:57– “Jared running the response“ is not true. There is a task force made up of science and medical and logistics experts “running the response,” and Jared is certainly not in charge of it. Don’t spread lies.

Anonymous said...

You at 4:36AM

are the one not in possession of the facts.

So I'll be charitable and assume you are just uninformed about what Jared Kushner has been doing lately.

DON'T TAKE MY WORD FOR IT.

WHY IS THE PRESIDENT'S SON IN LAW PRESENT AT ANY OFFICIAL PRESS BRIEFING?

DID YOU NOT EVER SEE THAT?

Here is one of many links you could find with 30 seconds of internet searching: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/03/trumps-halfwit-son-in-law-is-running-coronavirus-response-thats-unacceptable/

Trump’s ignorant son-in-law is running the coronavirus response. That’s unacceptable.

Here is the beginning of that piece:

Trump’s ignorant son-in-law is running the coronavirus response. That’s unacceptable.

By Paul Waldman
Opinion writer
April 3, 2020 at 11:50 a.m. CDT

“What a lot of the voters are seeing now is that when you elect somebody to be a mayor or a governor or a president, you’re trying to think about who will be a competent manager during the time of crisis. This is a time of crisis, and you’re seeing certain people are better managers than others.”

That was Jared Kushner speaking at the daily briefing of the White House coronavirus task force on Thursday. And why was Kushner there? Why is Kushner, as utterly ignorant and unqualified for this task as he is for all the other ones he has been assigned, even remotely involved with the government’s effort to deal with one of the most profound challenges the United States has ever faced?

Was it not enough that he was told to solve the opioid crisis and achieve Middle East peace, inevitably failing at both? Is he the person whose help we need right now?


(REMIND ME AGAIN low information 4:36am WHAT EXPLANATION THERE IS OTHER THAN PURE NEPOTISM AND SELF INTEREST FOR THE PRESIDENT'S SON IN LAW JARED KUSHNER TO BE INVOLVED IN ANY WAY IN ANY OFFICIAL CAPACITY IN THIS ADMINISTRATION)

He’s not just helping. According to multiple reports, Kushner has established his own shadow task force overseeing the government’s efforts on the coronavirus, at times duplicating or displacing what the official task force is doing as Kushner issues orders across the government and nobody is quite sure who is in charge.

“This was a total mess,” Kushner told people when he came in to take over the coronavirus response, according to Vanity Fair’s Gabriel Sherman. “I know how to make this government run now.”

This was during a period in which Kushner advised the president that the media was overhyping the threat from the virus: In mid-March, the New York Times reported that Kushner “considers the problem more about public psychology than a health reality, according to people who have spoken with him."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/03/trumps-halfwit-son-in-law-is-running-coronavirus-response-thats-unacceptable/

There must be some a reason you probably vote republican and probably voted for Donald Trump.

It certainly couldn't be that you don't know up from down?

Anonymous said...

Here is another recent report on the activities of the president's son in law Jared Kushner with respect to him sticking his fingers into the COVID-19 response efforts.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/01/jared-kushner-coronavirus-response-160553


NOTE THE SIDEBAR AT THE TOP OF THE STORY WHICH REFERENCES PREVIOUS REPORTING:

White House adviser Jared Kushner was initially tapped to join the coronavirus response by President Donald Trump on March 12.


NOTE THE HEADLINE:

Behind the scenes, Kushner takes charge of coronavirus response

Trump’s son-in-law sets up shop at FEMA as his portfolio balloons to include manufacturing, supplies and long-term planning.



READ THE STORY WHICH BEGINS:

By ADAM CANCRYN and DAN DIAMOND 04/01/2020 07:55 PM EDT


Dozens of Trump administration officials have trooped to the White House podium over the last two months to brief the public on their effort to combat coronavirus, but one person who hasn't -- Jared Kushner -- has emerged as perhaps the most pivotal figure in the national fight against the fast-growing pandemic.

What started two-and-a-half weeks ago as an effort to utilize the private sector to fix early testing failures has become an all-encompassing portfolio for Kushner, who, alongside a kitchen cabinet of outside experts including his former roommate and a suite of McKinsey consultants, has taken charge of the most important challenges facing the federal government: Expanding test access, ramping up industry production of needed medical supplies, and figuring out how to get those supplies to key locations.

Kushner has even obtained a new center of power at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the crisis-response organization that's taken over coronavirus strategy and planning -- and where Kushner and his deputies ride herd on the health agencies that had been criticized for their slow responses to the pandemic earlier this year.

Kushner’s group, which some have characterized as an “all-of-private-sector” operation in contrast to Vice President Mike Pence’s “all-of-government” task force, has had its successes – including airlifting emergency medical supplies to the United States, crowdsourcing mask and glove donations, and rapidly devising a last-ditch plan for hospitals to maximize ventilators.

But the behind-the-scenes working group has also duplicated existing federal teams and operations, and its focus on rapid, short-term decisions has created concern among some health-agency officials, according to interviews with 11 people involved in Kushner’s effort, including senior government officials, outside advisers and volunteers on the projects, as well as other health department and White House officials.

Federal decision-making is complicated by the fact that Kushner has the full confidence of President Donald Trump, with whom he confers multiple times a day, while Trump has expressed frustration with some of the leaders of health agencies.

Anonymous said...

So you can’t tell that when a headline starts off with “Trump’s ignorant son-in-law...” that it is probably a biased opinion piece and not a news article?