Howard, Howard and Hodges

11/01/2024

Congratulations to our two newest CPAs. Both passed the exam this year. Tyler Picou and Jessica Ford. Very proud of both of you.

04/19/2024

After 15 seasons with HHH, Shannon Houle has decided to pursue other interests. We will miss her. Thanks for being part of our family.

01/12/2022

Check it out now!

06/22/2020

Christine Carson’s team loves her so much they sent a 1/2 year birthday bouquet.

03/20/2020

Mnuchin extended the tax filing deadline this morning until July 15th. We are filing extensions anyway for all individual clients as a precaution against mandatory shut in. Our offices will be working to complete tax returns as quickly as possible, while keeping our team safe and sound.

03/19/2020

Last night President Trump signed the COVID 19 Act into law. It takes effect April 2nd. There are still many unknowns/questions surrounding this bill. The main uncertainty is whether businesses under 50 employees are excluded automatically or if it will require Secretary of Labor approval.

This bill expands the FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act) by changing the covering employers with under 500 employees (old rule was more than 25 employees).

Reasons for paid sick leave:
1. Subject to federal, state or local quarantine due to COVID 19
2. Advised by health care provider to self-quarantine due to COVID 19
3. Experiencing COVID 19 symptoms and seeking medical diagnosis
4. Caring for individual an individual subject to federal, state or local quarantine due to COVID 19
5. Caring for employee’s child if the child’s school or daycare closed due to CVOID 19
6. Experiencing any other substantially similar condition specified by the Secretary of Health and Human Services

The summary of the bill is as follows:
Emergency Paid Sick Leave
The Act requires employers with 500 or fewer employees to provide full-time employees with 80 hours of paid sick leave (or 2/3 the employee’s regular pay for reasons 4,5 or 6 above)
Paid sick leave is limited to $511 per day or up to $5110 total per employee for their own use and to $200 per day up to $2000 total to care for others
Paid sick leave will not carryover to the next year and maybe in addition to any sick leave currently provided by employer

Part time employees are entitled based on the average number of hours the employee worked for the six months prior to taking leave. If less than six months, then the average hours they would be scheduled to work for a two week period.

Job Restoration
Employers with more than 25 employees will have same obligation as under FMLA to return any employee who has taken Emergency Leave to the same or equivalent position upon their return. Under 25 employees are general excluded if employee’s position no longer exists due to economic downturn.

Emergency Family Medical Leave
The Act provides FMLA rights for employees of companies with less than 500 employees that have been employed at least 30 days by employer, requiring partially paid leave by the employer after 10 days when employee is unable to work or telework due to school or child care closures related to COVID 19. The paid leave is paid by employer and equal to not less than 2/3 of their normal payrate not to exceed $200 per day or $10,000 in the aggregate.
Secretary of Labor may exempt small businesses with fewer than 50 employees if the required leave would jeopardize the viability of the business.

Tax Credits
Employers are entitled to a refundable tax credit equal to 100% of the qualified sick leave wages paid by employer during each calendar quarter (capped at $511/day or $200 if caring for family member or child for up to 10 days).
Employers also eligible to a refundable tax credit equal to 100% of the qualified family leave wages paid by employer during each calendar quarter (capped at $200/day or $10,000 in the aggregate). Only those required to offer Emergency FMLA and Emergency Paid Sick Leave may receive these credits.
Tax credit will reduce the employer portion of Social security taxes on Form 941 and any excess will be refunded.

This is the a short summary and we are awaiting details as the bill unfolds.

03/19/2020

The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity has initiated a statewide Small Business Emergency Bridge Loan process for loans up to $50,000 (or $100,000 in special cases as warranted by the need of the business).

Here are the requirements to qualify:
Be a for-profit, privately held small business that maintains a place of business in the state of Florida
Be located in a designated disaster area. Eligible Florida counties per Executive Order 20-52 are: All counties statewide
Be established prior to March 9, 2020, the date of the designated disaster
Be able to demonstrate economic injury as a result of the designated disaster. The needs for the loan and use of proceeds must be directly related to the economic injury caused by the designated disaster

Here is a link to the details of the loan program:
https://floridadisasterloan.org

Here is a link to the application which is a fillable pdf file:
https://floridadisasterloan.org/a/w/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/20200316-COVID-19-Florida-Emergency-Bridge-Loan-Application1.pdf

For more information about COVID-19 and what you can do to keep healthy and safe, visit the Centers for Disease Control at cdc.gov or your local health department’s website.

The Florida Small Business Emergency Bridge Loan Program provides short term, interest free working capital loans to Florida businesses impacted by a disaster

03/19/2020

Below is a link to a short 7 minute video from Brian McGinn (newest partner in Howard Howard and Hodges). He covers a few topics each business owner should address or being thinking about as we enter this turbulent time.

Feel free to watch at your convenience. As always, we are here to help.

08/12/2019

Happy 15 years with HHH!

08/12/2019

15 year work anniversary - the firm family has grown since Diana started here in 2004.

08/12/2019

Today we celebrate the 15th anniversary of Diana Nieves employment with our firm. Hard to believe she has been here 15 years. We are fortunate to have her on our accounting team.