The minimum wage increase as passed by the General Assembly during the 2020 session is set to take effect on May 1, 2021. This legislation was originally supposed to take effect on January 1, 2021 but was amended as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The legislation increases the minimum wage in stages. Effective May 1, the hourly minimum wage in Virginia will increase to $9.50. It will increase again on January 1, 2022 to $11 an hour, and will increase to $12 an hour on January 1, 2023.Additional increases as defined by the legislation will be contingent on future actions by the General Assembly. View additional details from Jackson Lewis here.  View the bill information here.     

On Tuesday, President Biden signed into law the Paycheck Protection Program Extension Act of 2021, extending the program until May 31.     Why is this important?   The Paycheck Protection Program was set to expire on March 31, this bill continues the program for two additional months through May 31. In addition, the bill extends the authorization period for the PPP loans until the end of June, providing the Small Business Administration additional time to process the applications.    How can you learn more?   Learn more about the extension here.  Visit the SBA's Small Business PPP page here.       

Governor Northam has signed the Tax Conformity legislation into law. Due to the emergency clause, the legislation goes into effect immediately and is retroactive. This means that it will not be necessary to file an extension on your taxes to accommodate the typical July legislation start date in order to benefit from this legislation. Most importantly, the legislation conforms to the federal tax exemption for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan forgiveness and certain funding received under the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program. The bill permits a deduction for Taxable Year 2020 of up to $100,000 for business expenses funded by forgiven PPP loan proceeds.  View the full details from the Virginia Department of Taxation here. 

The 2021 General Assembly Session adjourned Sine Die on Monday, March 1, 2021. This year was one for the history books with regard to how the Session took place due to COVID-19 restrictions and social distancing measures. Overall, Retail had a successful year and many of the bills that would have had a negative impact on our industry were defeated. We want to thank all of our members for their strong participation in the action alerts we sent out this year. Your voices were heard and had a great impact on the outcome of certain legislation. Below is list of bills and their status, broken down by category.     Tax Conformity – Passed The House and the Senate each had their own version of Tax Conformity bills this year. The main issue at hand was the cap amount for deductions of business expenses for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Loans. Both bills, as passed the body of origin, allowed for a business that received a PPP loan to exclude the forgiven loan amount from their income, however each instilled a cap for maximum deduction to cover one’s business expenses related to their PPP Loans. The Senate version created a…