small business

State Offers More Help to Small Businesses

Connecticut will allow some small businesses to postpone giving sales tax receipts

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Small business relief cannot come soon enough for Connecticut companies suffering due to coronavirus.

For example, a $25 million small business bridge loan program announced last week got such a response that the state has doubled it to $50 million, and hit the pause button so new staff brought on board can process the applications it has so far.

That is not the only help small business owners are getting.

The Connecticut Department of Revenue Services will now allow businesses to postpone giving it the state sales tax receipts they collect for two months, in hopes of giving them some temporary cash flow help.  

Businesses that collect $150,000 or less in sales taxes each year qualify for the two-month extension on their sales tax receipts.  It's essentially the same threshold for smaller companies in the lodging business.

Jon Wardle, NBC CT
Camp Bow Wow in South Windsor says its kennel is at 25% capacity since coronavirus came to Connecticut

It will definitely help the owner at Camp Bow Wow in South Windsor, which has about a quarter of the dogs in day care and boarding that it usually has.  

Owner Tami Sarra-Romejko said the state sales tax receipts she collects usually average $5,000 per month.  She can now use that for things like rent, utilities, and payroll.  

“This could help enormously absolutely enormously and even if its only for a short period of time and it’s going to be due eventually the idea for all of us is we can get back to some sense of normal,” Sarra-Romejko explained.

The problem is, sales tax receipts for February were due this week, and Camp Bow Wow made its direct deposit payment a few days ago.

“There is next month.  It will help me then,” Sarra-Romejko said.

Sarra-Romejko, like many other small business owners, is also awaiting details on federal coronavirus stimulus funding that was signed into law last week, especially provisions that will make it easier to keep employees on staff.

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