On September 29th, President Trump signed into law H.R. 3823 — Disaster Tax Relief and Airport Airway Extension Act of 2017 to aid individuals and businesses impacted by the recent hurricanes in Texas, Florida, Georgia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Section 503 of the Act provides relief to businesses in the form of a retention tax credit to employers if the employee’s place of employment was inoperable and located in disaster zones ending on December 31, 2017 and starting on the following dates:

• August 23, 2017 (Hurricane Harvey)
• September 4, 2017 (Hurricane Irma)
• September 16, 2017 (Hurricane Maria)

Eligible employers must have continued to provide wages for employees working in those locations impacted by the hurricanes.

The retention credit amount will be calculated at 40% of the qualified wages of each eligible employee, up to a maximum of $6,000, and cannot include wages already used to calculate WOTC. The dates for qualifying wages are based on when the business first became inoperable and continue up to the date the business was able to resume significant operations.

Additionally, qualified wages include wages paid to employees that:

• performed no work
• worked at a different place of employment
• worked at their principal place of employment before significant operations resumed

Walton will continue to provide updates on new developments.