From its office in Clayton, Missouri, Danna McKitrick, P.C., delivers legal representation to new and growing businesses, financial institutions, non-profit and government-related entities, business owners, individuals, and families throughout the greater St. Louis region and the Midwest.
Danna McKitrick attorneys practice across many areas of law, both industry- and service-oriented.
Authored by Katherine M. Flett with assistance from Haley E. Gassel, contributor
Missouri employers must now provide unpaid leave and accommodations to employees due to domestic or sexual violence under the Victims’ Economic Safety and Security Act (VESSA).
Employers Covered Under VESSA
Employers with 1-19 employees are not subject to these requirements.
Employers with 20-49 employees are required to provide one week of unpaid leave per year to employees covered under these statutes.
Employers with 50 or more employees are likewise required to provide two weeks of unpaid leave per year to employees covered under these statutes.
Employees Eligible for Unpaid Leave or Accommodations under VESSA
VESSA applies to employees of covered employers who are victims of domestic or sexual violence, or whose family or household member is a victim of domestic or sexual violence. A family or household member is a spouse, parent, daughter, son, someone related by blood or by marriage, someone who shares a relationship through a son or daughter, and anyone jointly residing in the same household.
Reasonable Accommodations
Employers and public agencies are required to make reasonable safety accommodations to the known limitations resulting from circumstances relating to being a victim of domestic or sexual violence or a family or household member of domestic or sexual violence. Reasonable accommodations include: Continue reading »
The deadline for applying for a PPP loan has been extended for another 60 days by the PPP Extension Act of 2021 (“Act”). Previously set to expire on March 31, the deadline is now May 31, 2021. The Act provides the SBA with an additional 30 days – from June 1 through June 30, 2021 – to process PPP loan applications submitted by May 31, 2021.
President Biden announced changes to the Paycheck Protection Program on February 22, 2021, which include an exclusive two-week access period for businesses to apply for PPP loans.
The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) has reopened to aid small businesses. The “Economic Aid to Hard-Hit Small Businesses, Nonprofits, and Venues Act” (“Economic Aid Act”) makes several changes to the prior PPP rules that affect all PPP loans and enacts new rules for any new and additional PPP loan funding provided under the Economic Aid Act.
Through the Economic Aid Act, $284.45 billon was authorized for first-draw and second-draw PPP loans with several set-asides for underserved communities. Applications for these extended PPP loans are available until March 31, 2021. In addition to the information below, for further details about the PPP created by the CARES Act and rules that remain in effect, see our prior article here.
First-Draw PPP Loans Under the Economic Aid Act
Those seeking a PPP loan for the first time who thought they missed the deadline under the CARES Act have not lost their opportunity. Thanks to the Economic Aid Act, borrowers who did not receive a PPP loan (under the CARES Act) and meet the requirements may still apply for a PPP loan.
Eligible Entities
Those with 500 or fewer employees that previously would have been eligible for a PPP loan are still eligible if they were operating as of February 15, 2020 and paid salaries and payroll taxes for employees or independent contractors.
Entities with more than 500 employees in certain entities that meet SBA alternative size standards are eligible.
The following entities are now expressly eligible for PPP loans under the Economic Aid Act as well:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued an Agency Order effective September 4, 2020 announcing a temporary moratorium on residential evictions in attempts to limit the spread of COVID-19. The agency order was issued shortly after the White House announced an order barring evictions for renters would likely be issued as negotiations in Congress for renewal of CARES Act provisions have stalled.
The order is effective through December 31, 2020 and goes further than previous moratorium measures outlined in the CARES Act based on the number of citizens who could seek help if circumstances so require. In support of this measure, the CDC and HHS cited that eviction moratorium-like measures enable members of the public to have shelter in which to quarantine, isolate, and practice social distancing resulting in an effective and beneficial public health measure to prevent the rampant spread of COVID-19.
Under the order, a landlord, owner of residential property, or ‘other person’ with legal rights to pursue evictions or a possessory action (“landlord”) is not permitted to evict a ‘covered person’ (“tenant”) from a residential property[1] until the order expires at the end of the year. Therefore, almost any person or entity who leases a residential property to another must comply with the order. (Note: ‘Covered person’ includes any tenant, lessee, or resident of residential property. ‘Other person’ includes corporations, companies, associations, firms, partnerships, societies, and joint stock companies, as well as individuals.) Continue reading »
This extension means the FHA has now provided more than nine months of foreclosure and eviction relief to FHA-insured homeowners. As this is a continuation of the moratorium put in place in March of this year, the protections continue to apply to homeowners with FHA-insured Title II Single Family forward and Home Equity Conversion (“reverse”) mortgages.
As a refresher, the moratorium requires mortgage servicers to:
Halt all new foreclosure actions and suspend all foreclosure actions currently in process for FHA-insured single-family properties, excluding legally vacant or abandoned properties; and
Cease all evictions of persons from FHA-insured single-family properties, excluding actions to evict occupants of legally vacant or abandoned properties.
According to HUD, “homeowners with FHA-insured mortgages should continue to make their mortgage payments during the foreclosure and eviction moratorium if they are able to do so, or seek mortgage payment forbearance pursuant to the CARES Act from their mortgage servicer, if needed.”
The Missouri Department of Economic Development (DED) has provided guidance on how to apply for the Small Business Grant Program as added by the CARES Act and House Bill 2007. The grants seek to provide support to small businesses and family-owned farms by reimbursing the costs of business interruptions caused by required COVID-19 closures.
DED kicked off the grant program by focusing on hardest hit industries: retail trade, accommodation, food service, health care, and family-owned farms. Applications for these industries are being accepted until August 31, 2020. Businesses in other industries may apply on or after September 1, 2020 if funds are still available.
While all a business or farm’s expenses may not be covered, or total reimbursement may not be possible, depending on funding available, the grant program provides another excellent option for COVID-19-related relief.
Program Basics:
The Missouri grant program is statewide with the total funds available set at $30 million, Of this, $7.5 million is specifically available for family-owned farms and family farm corporations.[i] Each applicant may only file one grant application. Hopeful applicants must incur, or have incurred, COVID-related costs between March 1, 2020 – November 15, 2020. Continue reading »
co-presented by Katherine M. Flett and Ruth Binger
Ruth Binger and Katherine Flett presented a webinar on keeping your business in business, which included employment and business strategies during the pandemic.
The Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act (Flexibility Act) makes key changes to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) that provide borrowers with more flexibility to obtain loan forgiveness, including extending the time period to spend PPP loan proceeds, reducing the payroll expenditure requirement for PPP loans, and extending the time period to restore employment and wage levels. The following is a summary of the modifications the Flexibility Act makes to the PPP.
1. Extension of Time to Spend Loan Proceeds. The Flexibility Act extends the covered period that a borrower must spend its loan funds from eight weeks after the loan origination date to 24 weeks or until December 31, 2020, whichever is earlier. The Flexibility Act allows borrowers that already received a PPP loan prior to enactment of the Flexibility Act to elect an eight week covered period, which may be beneficial for borrowers who have already spent most of their PPP loan proceeds and are near the end of their original eight week covered period.
2. Payroll Expenditure Requirement. The Flexibility Act reduces the payroll expenditure requirement from 75% to 60%. The remaining 40% of loan funds may still only be used for payments of interest on any covered mortgage obligation, rent and utilities.
In an Interim Final Rule issued on April 3, the SBA established the requirement that at least 75% of the PPP loan proceeds be used for payroll costs. If less than 75% of the of loan funds are spent on payroll costs, the SBA Loan Forgiveness Application requires a borrower to reduce the amount eligible for loan forgiveness. In changing the payroll expenditure requirement to 60%, the Flexibility Act added the following language to the CARES Act: “To receive loan forgiveness”, a borrower “shall use at least 60% of the covered loan amount for payroll costs.” Based on this language it is not clear whether a borrower will still be able to obtain partial loan forgiveness if the 60% threshold is not obtained. Continue reading »
Missouri employers must now provide unpaid leave and accommodations to employees due to domestic or sexual violence under the 
