Trade coalition asks congressional leaders to include ERTC Reinstatement Act in spending package

A coalition of trade associations and charitable nonprofits, led by the National Automatic Merchandising Association, delivered this week a letter asking congressional leaders to include the ERTC Reinstatement Act (H.R.6161/S.3625) in the upcoming spending package.

Introduced by Rep. Carol Miller (R-WV) in December 2021, the bipartisan Employee Retention Tax Credit Reinstatement Act restores the ERTC for the forth quarter (Oct. 1-Dec.31) of 2021. 

A valuable COVID-19 relief tool for vending and office coffee service operations, the ERTC was established in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act in March 2020 to help small businesses retain and rehire employees who were let go due to the pandemic. The program ended in September 2021 to help fund the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. 

Addressed to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the letter begins:

The undersigned organizations, on behalf of the small businesses and nonprofit organizations we represent, the employees who rely on them for their livelihoods, and the communities they serve, urge you to restore the Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC) by passing the bipartisan Employee Retention Tax Credit Reinstatement Act (H.R. 6161/S.3625), either as a standalone measure or as part of a larger package.

Click here to see the full text of the letter.

"[Vending] operators are already experiencing challenges in filing their 2021 tax returns and some are even being penalized for taking the credit into Q4 as originally promised," said Mike Goscinski, NAMA's senior director of external affairs. "Passage of the bill as part of the upcoming spending package is the quickest way to rectify the program’s wrongful early termination and bring certainty back for small businesses."