Welcome back. I hope you had a good long weekend, and maybe a bit of an extended break from work. We had a fun virtual Easter family get together through Zoom (security concerns have been addressed, and no one wants to listen to our family drama any way 🙂 I hope you could connect with your loved ones.
A few items today. Just to remind you that the Wage subsidy is available to employers in an attempt to keep your staff at work, or at least on the payroll. The loan can be used to cover benefits and other expenses interest-free and $10,000 of it can be forgiven (kind of like a taxable grant?). If you are eligible, I’ve included the links below.
The Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy
The new Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) provides a 75% wage subsidy to eligible employers for up to 12 weeks, retroactive to March 15, 2020.
The CEWS prevents further job losses, encourages employers to re-hire workers previously laid off as a result of COVID-19, and help better position Canadian companies and other employers to more easily resume normal operations following the crisis.
The Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA)
CEBA provides much needed credit for small businesses to pay for immediate operating costs such as payroll, rent, utilities, insurance, property tax, or debt service. It is 100 per cent funded by the Government of Canada.
- It is available to Canadian employers with $50,000 to $1 million in total payroll in 2019, and operating as of March 1, 2020. This includes smaller (i.e., micro) businesses and other eligible employers such as not-for-profits.
- Under CEBA, financial institutions will be able to provide interest-free credit facilities of up to $40,000 to eligible businesses.
- If the loan is repaid by December 31, 2022, 25 per cent (up to $10,000) will be forgiven.
- If the loan is not repaid by December 31, 2022, the remaining balance will be converted to a three-year term loan at 5 per cent interest.