U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Ben Cardin (D-MD), and Patty Murray (D-WA) Tuesday reintroduced the Restaurant Revitalization Tax Credit Act, which seeks to provide restaurant tax relief.
The bill would establish a special tax credit available to businesses that have applied for the Small Business Administration (SBA) Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF) program but could not receive a grant because the program ran out of funding.
“Restaurants are anchors in so many communities,” Brown said. “They’re more than just a place to eat, they are destinations and engines for local economies and small businesses that employ our neighbors. I’m proud to reintroduce the Restaurant Revitalization Fund Tax Credit for the thousands of qualified restaurants that did not get the help they needed and are still working hard to stay afloat.”
The tax credit would be available to eligible employers and enable them to offset payroll taxes of up to $25,000 per quarter in calendar year 2023.
The tax credit is refundable up to a total of $25,000 over the course of the year for businesses with 10 or fewer employees, with the cap on refundability gradually phased out for businesses with fewer than 20 employees.
The restaurants must have experienced average operating losses of at least 30 percent in 2020 and 2021 in comparison to 2019 or losses of at least 50 percent in either calendar years 2020 or 2021 as compared to 2019, according to the measure, and a business must have been in operation before March 14, 2020, and paid payroll tax in at least two quarters in 2021.