THE AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN ACT OF 2021

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA), signed by President Biden on March 11, 2021, is the latest major legislation that provides economic relief and stimulus, both tax and non-tax, during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Below are brief summaries of the key aspects of the tax provisions in ARPA.

Provisions Affecting Individuals

Recovery rebate credits (stimulus checks). ARPA provides a third round of nontaxable stimulus checks directly payable to individuals. The payments are structured as refundable tax credits against 2021 taxes but will paid in 2021 (not 2022).

The maximum payments are $1,400 per eligible individual ($2,800 for married joint filers) and $1,400 for each dependent (which, unlike the first two stimulus payments, includes older children and adult dependents). The payment phases out proportionally between $75,000 and $80,000 AGI for single filers, $112,500 and $120,000 for head of household filers, and $150,000 and $160,000 for married joint filers.

Rules for identification, for payments made notwithstanding no filing of 2019 and 2020 returns, and for limitations on offsets apply. Eligibility is based on information from 2020 income tax returns (or 2019 returns, if 2020 returns haven’t been filed when the advanced credit is initially issued). For households whose payment was based on 2019 income data, and who would be eligible to receive a larger payment based on 2020 data, IRS is directed to issue a supplementary payment.

Child tax credit. For 2021 (1) qualifying children include 17-year-olds, (2) the credit is increased to $3,000 per child ($3,600 for children under six years of age), but the increase is subject to modified AGI phase out rules (and the existing modified AGI phase out rules for eligibility for any credit at all continue to apply), (3) the credit is refundable, and (4) IRS will make periodic advance payments totaling 50% of its estimate of the credit in the last half of 2021.

Earned income tax credit (EITC). (1) For 2021 the credit is increased for taxpayers with no qualifying children and age restrictions for those taxpayers are relaxed; (2) after 2020 taxpayers that have a qualifying child but can’t meet the identification requirements for the qualifying child are nevertheless allowed the credit; (3) taxpayers may use the greater of their 2019 or 2021 earned income in calculating the credit for 2021; (4) after 2020, the amount of investment income that a taxpayer can have and still earn the credit is increased; and (5) after 2020 there is broadening of the existing exception to the credit’s joint filing requirement under which separated married people eligible to file jointly are allowed the credit even if they don’t file jointly.

Child and dependent care credit. For 2021 (1) the credit is refundable; (2) the amount of qualifying expenses taken into account for the credit is increased from $3,000 to $8,000 if there’s one qualifying care recipient and from $6,000 to $16,000 if there are two or more; (3) the maximum percentage of qualifying expenses for which credit is allowed is increased to 50% from 35%; and (4) phase-down rules, based on AGI, are changed.

The increased dependent care assistance program exclusion amount (see below) under Code Sec. 129 will also affect the child and dependent care credit, as the amount of expenses taken into account for the credit is reduced by the amount excludable from the taxpayer’s income under Code Sec. 129.

Dependent care assistance programs. For 2021, the amount excludible under a dependent care assistance program is increased to $10,500 (or $7,500 for a married taxpayer filing a separate return). Retroactive plan amendments are allowed to facilitate the increase.

Health care premium assistance credit. For 2021 and 2022, the credit will be available for a larger percentage of insurance premiums, and individuals whose income is greater than 400% of the poverty line will be eligible for (rather than barred from) the credit. For 2020, individuals who were provided advances of the credit under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in excess of the credits to which they are entitled aren’t obligated to pay back the excess. And, notwithstanding any other rules, individuals who receive unemployment compensation during 2021 are eligible for the credit (and under rules that increase the amount of the credit).

Income exclusion for unemployment benefits. For 2020, taxpayers with modified AGI less than $150,000 can exclude from gross income $10,200 of their unemployment benefit. The exclusion is available to each spouse if a joint return is filed. For taxpayers who already filed 2020 returns and did not exclude unemployment benefits, IRS said that taxpayers shouldn’t file an amended return and that additional guidance will be provided.

Student loan forgiveness. Beginning in 2021 and continuing through 2025, the forgiveness of many types of loans for post-high school education won’t result in income inclusion for the forgiven amounts.

Provisions Affecting Businesses

Payroll tax credits. The paid sick leave and family leave credits are extended to apply to wages paid through September 30, 2021 (instead of March 31, 2021).

There are also changes to these credits, including:

• One major change is that during the two-quarter extension period the credits are applied against the employer Medicare portion of payroll taxes instead of the OASDI (Social Security) portion. The Medicare taxes taken into account are those for all employees, not just employees to whom qualifying leave wages are paid. But the credits continue to be refundable (and, thus, allowed in excess of the Medicare taxes) and advance refundable (they can be applied against any employment taxes, including income tax withholdings, for the quarter in which eligible leave wages are being paid, with any remaining credit refundable at the end of the quarter).

• An additional major change is that the allowable credit can be increased by both by both the amount of the OASDI taxes paid and Medicare taxes paid with respect to eligible leave wages, instead of just the Medicare taxes.

• Rules are provided that coordinate the leave credits with second draw Payroll Protection Program loans and certain government grants.

• The no-double benefit rule, which disallows claiming both (1) either of the above credits and (2) the income tax credit for family or medical leave is expanded to include similar coordination with certain other income and payroll tax credits.

• An employer is ineligible for the leave credits if, in providing paid leave, the employer discriminates in favor of highly compensated or full-time employees or on the basis of employment tenure.

• IRS is allowed an extended limitation-on-assessment period for deficiencies due to claiming either of the leave credits.

• ARPA allows employers who voluntarily provide 80 hours of emergency paid sick leave and 12 weeks of emergency family leave beginning after March 31, 2021 to claim the leave credits, thereby resetting the leave bank regardless of whether the employee used leave previously or has exhausted leave.

• The employee retention credit is extended to apply to wages paid before January 1, 2022 (instead of July 1, 2021). The result is that as a general rule (but see below) there is allowed a maximum per employee credit for 2021 of $28,000 ($10,000 of wages taken into account per quarter multiplied by the credit rate of 70%).

• Also, there are modifications to this credit. A major change is that for the last two calendar quarters of 2021 there is allowed a maximum $50,000 credit per quarter to certain small start-up businesses (and under relaxed eligibility rules). This change makes a limited credit available to some businesses that couldn’t qualify for the credit at all because they can’t meet either the full/partial suspension or 20% drop-in-gross-receipts requirements. And, during those two quarters certain distressed businesses will be able to treat all wages as eligible (up to the $10,000 per quarter limit), enabling employers with more than 500 employees, who can ordinarily treat only wages paid to laid-off workers as eligible, to treat any wages as eligible.

• Another of the major changes is that the change to applying the credit to Medicare taxes (discussed above for the paid sick and family leave credits) also applies (along with the continuing refundability and, for employers with no more than 500 employees, advance refundability of the credit).

• Under related rules, the relieved amounts aren’t included in the income of the individuals and there is imposed by the Internal Revenue Code a penalty on individuals that fail to report the end of their eligibility.

Self-employment sick and family leave credits. These credits, which are creditable against the income tax, have been extended to apply to eligible days through September 30, 2021 (instead of March 31, 2021). A major change is that both credits treat as reasons for eligible leave the obtaining of or recovering from Covid-19 immunization. And, for the family leave credit, reasons for eligible leave are expanded to include all qualifying reasons for taking sick leave.

Another major change is that in determining whether the 10-day per tax year limit for the sick leave credit is complied with, only days after December 31, 2021, are taken into account (thus restarting the count and often increasing the cumulative number of eligible days). And, a major change to the family leave credit is that the maximum number of eligible days per tax year is increased from 50 to 60, again with only days after March 31, 2021 taken into account (resetting the count and often increasing the cumulative number of eligible days).

Excess business losses. In a revenue raiser, the disallowance of excess business losses is extended to run through 2026 instead of 2025.

Deduction disallowance for over $1 million employee remuneration. In another revenue raiser, for tax years beginning after calendar year 2026, the $1 million annual cap on the deductibility of remuneration paid to certain categories of employees of publicly held corporations is expanded to include as a new category the five highest compensated employees not included in other categories.

Tax treatment of certain non-tax relief. ARPA provides favorable tax consequences for targeted Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) advances made by the SBA under the Economic Aid to Hard-hit Small Businesses, Non-Profits and Venues Act. The advances aren’t included in income and the income exclusion doesn’t result in deduction disallowances, denial of basis increases or reduction of other tax attributes. The same treatment applies to SBA Restaurant Revitalization Grants.

Pension plans. ARPA relaxes some funding standards and other IRC or ERISA rules for multiple employer pension plans. For single employer plans, IRC or ERISA rules are relaxed for amortizing funding shortfalls and the pension funding stabilization percentages are changed. Also changed are the special rules that apply to community newspaper plans.

Reporting by third party settlement organizations. ARPA tightens the de minimis exception to tax reporting by third party settlement organizations (TPSOs, e.g., PayPal) by excluding from reporting only transactions that don’t exceed $600 (and eliminating the 200-transaction threshold). ARPA also clarified that TPSO reporting obligations are limited to transactions involving goods and services.

Foreign tax. In a revenue raising provision, IRC section 864(f), which provided a one-time election under which, effectively, corporate groups could allocate some interest expense from foreign to domestic corporations and reduce the effect of limits on the foreign tax credit, is repealed. The repeal is retroactive to the election’s effective date (i.e., for tax years beginning after Dec. 31, 2020).