Danny Schwartzman has some big questions about what 2022 holds for his Minneapolis café and catering operations.
But that was before federal lawmakers passed the infrastructure bill, which President Joe Biden has said he will sign. The share of businesses using the credit was “modest at best,” according to new Treasury Department research. The low numbers are likely because many people didn’t know of the credit or were scared off by its requirements, some small business experts say.
Schwartzman started accessing the credit at the end of last year. “If I didn’t have this program, I would have lost a lot of money,” said Schwartzman, also received PPP money. The infrastructure bill was “historic and sorely needed,” said Sarah Crozier, spokeswoman for Main Street Alliance, a small business advocacy organization. Still, she noted, “the early ending of the [Employee Retention Credit] program, and the general philosophy of using COVID rescue dollars as a funding source was a mistake, and will shorten the support of needed rescue funds.
These steps might be necessary if businesses don’t have the credit’s funds to wait out challenges like too few job applicants or supply-chain problems, Wade said.