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The government have recently released some updated and new benefit programs for businesses struggling to meet payroll and rent during the ongoing shut-downs.
Rent Relief is Coming
If you are a business owner, or a landlord struggling with issues surrounding commercial rent, help is on the way! The Federal Government today announced further details about the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance (CECRA) program. This program targets small businesses with up t $50,000 in monthly commercial rent and qualifying tenants will receive a purported 75% reduction in their monthly rent for April, May & June.
To be eligible, tenants mush show a 70% reduction in revenues for the three months compared to the same month in the prior year, or to January or February 2020. The support will also be available to non-profit and charitable organizations.
The program will provide forgivable loans to qualifying commercial property owners to cover 50% of the three month's rent payments. The loans will be forgiven if the landlord agrees to reduce the eligible small business tenant's rent by at least 75% under a forgiveness agreement which would include terminology that would prevent the landlord from evicting the tenant while the agreement is in place. The small business tenant is expected to cover the remaining 25% of the rent.
Further details should be announced in the next week or so.
Applications for the 75% Wage Subsidy Start Monday
The CRA have announced that applications for the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) will be open on Monday, April 27. The CEWS will provide up to 75% of eligible employees wages during the period from March 15 to June 6 providing certain criteria have been met. To help you prepare, the CRA has provided an online wage calculator.
The CRA also recommend that business and taxpayers sign up for the My Business Account to assist in the application process. If you haven't done so already I suggest that you take the time now to do so in order to get ready for the applications.
I have recently shared an article by CPA Canada that outlines the qualifying criteria, but the CRA have also outlined the relevant details on their website that you should review prior to going through the application.
If you have any questions on how or if your business qualifies or need to gather information required for either of the above submissions, or any other COVID-19 benefit program for that matter, please feel free to contact me directly.