Brown, Colleagues Reintroduce Legislation to Provide Tax Relief to Restaurants

 

Brown’s Restaurant Revitalization Tax Credit Act Would Help Restaurants That Didn’t Receive Restaurant Revitalization Funding

WASHINGTON, D.C. – January 24. 2023 – Today, U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Ben Cardin (D-MD), and Patty Murray (D-WA) reintroduced The Restaurant Revitalization Tax Credit Act. This legislation would create a special tax credit available to businesses that applied for the Small Business Administration (SBA) Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF) program but were unable to receive a grant because the program ran out of funding. Nearly 2 of every 3 eligible RRF applicants, or approximately 175,000 businesses, did not receive RRF assistance because the program ran out of funding. Brown first introduced the legislation in December 2022.

“Restaurants are anchors in so many communities. They’re more than just a place to eat, they are destinations and engines for local economies and small businesses that employ our neighbors,” said Brown. “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 bill would establish the Restaurant Revitalization Tax Credit, which would be available to eligible employers and would allow them to offset payroll taxes of up to $25,000 per quarter in calendar year 2023. For businesses with 10 or fewer employees, the credit is refundable up to a total of $25,000 over the course of the year, with the cap on refundability gradually phased out for businesses with fewer than 20 employees. The credit is open only to those businesses that applied for and were eligible to receive RRF grants. They also must have experienced average operating losses of at least 30 percent in 2020 and 2021 as compared to 2019 or losses of at least 50 percent in either calendar years 2020 or 2021 as compared to 2019. In addition, a business must have been in operation prior to March 14, 2020, and have paid payroll tax in at least two quarters in 2021.

Click here to view a PDF of the bill text, and here to view a bill summary.