They expect the $ 600 federal check will benefit 2.8 million Puerto Rico residents

Washington DC– The government of Puerto Rico estimates that 2.8 million residents of the island – including dependent children – will benefit from the $ 600 federal checks authorized by the new federal law that aims to boost the economy and resolve the emergency. to tackle the health field caused by the coronavirus.

Treasury Secretary Francisco Parés presented to the federal Internal Revenue Service (IRS) this morning the plan for the distribution of checks on the island, about “10 hours” after President Donald Trump threatened to veto the legislation and law of it.

“The key will be how soon the Treasury Department – which it needs to review after the IRS – approves the distribution plan for us”Minister Parés said, stressing that the federal government has warned that nothing will happen this week. It also ignores the impact of the federal government transition on this entire process.

In the first passage, it took the Treasury Department 22 days – 36 days after President Donald Trump signed the Cares Act. approves the plan of the government of Puerto Rico for the distribution of the first checks to the citizens to alleviate the economic setbacks of this pandemic. Parés said this total period of 36 days was “a record” compared to previous initiatives, but now, by presenting a plan based on information from April last year, he foresees “a much shorter process”.

Secretary Parés estimates that the Treasury will send the Treasury Department a total payment of between $ 1,500 million and $ 1,700 million to fund checks to citizens once the draft distribution plan is approved.

Without wishing to set a specific calendar, Parés indicated that once it has Treasury approval, it will take a few hours to start direct payments and within “three to four weeks” to reach 90% of citizens .

Under the budget omnibus that includes the economic stimulus initiatives, the vast majority of citizens will receive a check for $ 600 as long as their income does not exceed $ 75,000 in 2019.

For couples who contribute jointly, the payment is $ 1,200, with a maximum income of $ 150,000.

For each dependent child – age 17 or younger – an additional $ 600 is earned. In this sense, a couple with two children will receive a check for $ 2,400 if their income does not exceed $ 150,000.

Checks for $ 600 are reduced by $ 5 for each additional $ 100 until they disappear when the person earns an income of up to $ 87,000. The same is true for couples up to $ 174,000.

Last time, the IRS refused to allow inmates of the island to receive the $ 1,200 Cares check. According to Pares, the new plan by the Puerto Rico government calls for the admission of prisoners. “We never intended to rule them out,” but the decision is in the hands of the IRS, Parés said.

Trump, since Tuesday last week, has threatened to veto legislation requiring direct aid to citizens in the economic stimulus project to be increased from $ 600 to $ 2,000 and that allocations to overseas, as usually happens every year, be eliminated. , in the 2021 federal budget.

The economic stimulus project allocates $ 900 billion in direct aid to citizens, unemployment, assistance to small businesses, housing aid, food and funds to finance the distribution of coronavirus vaccines, among other things.

This afternoon or tonight, the US House of Representatives will vote on a Democratic change in law to increase direct aid to citizens to $ 2,000.

But even if the measure passes in the lower house, where two-thirds of the votes will be required under suspension of the rules, it is unlikely to pass this week in the Republican-controlled Senate. The current session of the congress is scheduled for Saturday.

An additional check over $ 600, in that sense, seems to depend more on Joe Biden’s request once he is sworn in as president on January 20.

Still, Parés expects that if Congress increased the federal check to $ 2,000, it would have to submit a different distribution plan to the IRS.

The signing of the economic stimulus and fiscal legislation prevented the federal government from being partially shut down at midnight today and the federal moratorium on evictions from expiring on the first day of 2021. The moratorium has been extended until January 31.

However, Trump’s delay in signing the measure into law may have cost a week of unemployment benefits.

The new law that aims to boost the economy and address the health emergency caused by the coronavirus proposed federal aid of $ 300 a week until March 14. But it is likely that the unemployed could not receive that benefit this week, reducing its duration to 10 weeks instead of 11.

Puerto Rico’s Minister of Labor Carlos Rivera Santiago said today that he is awaiting the guidelines of the federal government to start the next unemployment assistance process, after between 90,000 and 100,000 self-employed workers without the help of the unemployment assistance program are set up to mitigate the pandemic (PUA).

“Once (the guidelines) are established, we will be able to estimate the estimated number of people eligible and the date of their disbursement,” said Rivera Santiago.

In addition, through financial institutions, the Small Business Administration (SBA) will coordinate small business assistance programs, specifically Payroll Protection Loans (PPP) that will have a second round for companies with 300 employees or less and a first chance for the 500 or fewer who did not participate in the original PPP.

Businesses can borrow up to $ 2 million for eight to 24 weeks.

Up to $ 150,000 can be forgiven if the company spends at least 60% of the costs on payroll and the remainder on rent or mortgage, utilities, personal protective equipment, accounting and technology services.

“For PPP2, you need to show a 25% or more revenue decline in the quarter of 2020,” compared to 2019, for which you are asking for forgiveness of the loan, explained licensed public accountant (CPA) Kenneth Rivera Robles. , Chairman of the Legislative Affairs Committee of the Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce.

The measure also extends the Employee Retention Credit (ERTC) – for companies that have faced an emergency shutdown due to the coronavirus or a significant drop in sales – until June 30, 2021. It is a credit that in terms of tax can be complicated to apply. .

“People should do their analysis to determine whether to ask for the ERTC. The question is whether he will receive benefits from the ERTC after applying for the PPP, ”adds Rivera Robles.

The economic stimulus project allocations include $ 13 billion in food aid funds, of which $ 580 million is for Puerto Rico, according to Washington Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González.

The measure, in turn, provides more than $ 300 million to help low-income families in Puerto Rico affected by the pandemic pay the rent for their homes.

Funding for $ 82 billion in education and to fund the distribution of coronavirus vaccines, as well as to purchase more COVID-19 diagnostic tests, are not specified. The same is happening with initiatives including transportation ($ 45,000 million) and the Internet ($ 3,200 million).

In the part of the budget project for 2021, Congress, as had also progressed, ordered the National Science Foundation (NSF) to present a report within 60 days on the damage caused by the collapse of the Arecibo radio telescope, the process of cleaning and around the possibility of restoring a similar technology.

The legislation simultaneously raises to $ 255.8 million congressional approval for the Caño Martín Peña’s environmental restoration project, and gives green light to the implementation of the projects to control flooding in the Culebrinas River. Rio Grande de Manatí and Rio Guayanilla in Puerto Rico.