Unemployment Insurance and Resources

• A refundable payroll tax credit for 50% of wages paid by employers to employees during the COVID-19 crisis.
• Temporary increases to the amount of interest expense businesses are allowed to deduct on their tax returns to 50% of taxable income for 2019 and 2020.
• Allowances to employers and self-employed individuals to defer payments of the employer share of the Social Security tax.
• Read the full text of the bill.
• Read the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s summary of the CARES Act.  
• See the U.S. Chamber’s Small Business Guide to the CARES Act.   

The Work-Share Program

• The Work-Share Program provides an alternative to laying off employees by allowing them to keep working, but with fewer hours. While an employee is working fewer hours, he or she may be eligible to collect part of his or her regular unemployment benefits.
• Requirements and Qualifications for Employers:
  • You must have reduced the normal weekly work hours by at least 10 percent, but by no more than 40 percent.
    
  • The reduction must affect at least two out of all employees in the business, or a minimum of two employees in a certain unit.
    
  • You must have paid as much in premiums as we paid your former employees in unemployment insurance benefits. 
• For more details on the Work-Share Program and other lay-off alternatives, please click here.

• Small Business Administration (SBA) loans
• Colorado Small Business Development Center (SBDC) published a COVID-19 Small Business Response Resources guide to SBA loans, Business Interruption Insurance, Work-Share, and more with a comprehensive list of valuable resources for Colorado businesses.
• Small Business COVID-19 Disaster Relief Hotline: 1-800-860-5881. Or apply directly at disasterloan.sba.gov/ela. 
• Call the SBA Economic Injury Relief Hotline at 1-800-659-2955.

• Benefits paid during a COVID-19 pandemic will be charged to the State pool fund, not to the employer’s account and experience rate.  Those employers who reimburse the State for benefits charged against their account will still be required to pay those benefit charges.
• The State will not pay benefits to claimants who are eligible for other similar benefits that are made available by the federal government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The State will consider timely any quarterly reports or premium payments if the employer or an immediate family member is requested to quarantine or if the employer’s place of business was closed or operations were curtailed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.