Maryland’s Small Businesses Receive Additional Aid in the RELIEF Act of 2021

By David A. Wolford, CPA, LSWG Supervisor

Tuesday, February 16, 2021 – On Monday, February 15, 2021, Maryland signed into law the RELIEF Act of 2021. Included in the law are a number of provisions to provide relief for the State’s small businesses.

The RELIEF Act (Recovery for the Economy, Livelihoods, Industries, Entrepreneurs, and Families) would allow certain small businesses to keep the sales taxes they collect — up to $3,000 per month — for three months if…

• The business timely files a sales and use tax return
• The gross amount of sales and use tax that the business is required to pay with the return does not exceed $6,000
• The credit allowed is equal to the lesser of $3,000 or the amount of sales and use tax collected during the month.

Additional provisions included in the RELIEF Act of 2021:

• Businesses that received state pandemic assistance, including grants and forgiven loans, would be exempt from paying state taxes on that money.
• Employers who laid people off during the pandemic would not have to pay increased unemployment insurance taxes.
• Businesses with fewer than 50 workers would be able to postpone unemployment taxes for a year.

Deemed emergency legislation, the law takes effect immediately. Additional information can be found on the Maryland Governor’s website (here), and the Maryland Association of CPAs website (here).

David A. Wolford, CPA, is a supervisor in LSWG’s Frederick office where he provides client accounting services to LSWG’s owner-managed business clients. A QuickBooks Certified ProAdvisor, David specializes in payroll and financial statement preparation and is a key contributor to LSWG’s cloud-based “back office” accounting service. You can reach David by email at dwolford@LSWG.cpa or by phone at 301.662.9200