Need an Easter basket filler?

The TX Restaurant Relief Fund, established through the Texas Restaurant Association Education Foundation (TRAEF), the not-for-profit workforce development arm of the TRA, has a simple yet critical mission: To provide immediate financial relief to Texas' independent restaurateurs with funds designed to save employee jobs. Independent restaurateurs will be eligible to apply for grants of up to $5,000 per unit through the TX Restaurant Relief Fund.

The Restaurant Employee Relief Fund ("Fund") was created to help restaurant industry employees experiencing extraordinary hardship in the wake of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak. Through this Fund, grants will be made to restaurant industry employees who have been impacted by COVID-19, including a decrease in wages or loss of employment.

Scammers are using the Small Business Administration's (SBA) name to con small businesses and individuals during the COVID-19 crisis through phone calls, emails, text messages and letters.

Please note:

• If you are contacted by someone claiming to be from the SBA, suspect fraud.
• Emails from SBA or other legitimate government agencies will always end in .gov.
• There is no cost to apply for a COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan and SBA will never ask you to provide a credit card.
• Do not release any private information (social security number, date of birth, etc.) or banking information in response to an unsolicited caller, letter, email, or text.
• If you are in the process of applying for an SBA loan and receive email correspondence asking for PII, ensure that the referenced application number is consistent with your application number.
• An SBA logo on an email or webpage does not guarantee the information is accurate or from the SBA.
• Check for spelling and grammatical errors in an email and be wary of clicking on any links or attachments.
• For help with applying for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan, call 800-659-2955 or email disastercustomerservice@sba.gov. You can also use a text telephone (TTY) by calling 1-800-877-8339.
• For inquiries regarding support for small businesses, send an email to answerdesk@sba.gov
• Visit the Small Business Cybersecurity site to learn more about small Business Cybersecurity tips, common threats, training, and best practices.
• Visit the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Cyber Infrastructure site for small business resources.
• Trust your instincts! If something seems too good to be true, then it probably is too good to be true.

Federal Disaster Loans for Businesses, Private Nonprofits, Homeowners, and Renters
(Printing the form to give to local SBA bankers may be the best way to apply)

Economic Injury Disaster Loans
If you have suffered substantial economic injury and are one of the following types of businesses located in a declared disaster area, you may be eligible for an SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL):

• Small Business
• Small agricultural cooperative
• Most private nonprofit organizations

These are challenging times for businesses all over the nation. The Texas Comptroller's office knows that during periods of economic hardship, paying or remitting taxes and fees on time can feel like an extra burden when there's so much uncertainty. We're thankful to those businesses that were able to remit state and local sales taxes they collected from customers in February on the March 20, 2020, due date.

We understand that virtually all of our taxpayers are doing their best to remain in compliance and be responsible in submitting the taxes they collected from their customers. With that in mind, our agency is here to offer assistance to those businesses that are struggling to pay the full amount of sales taxes they collected in February.

For businesses that find themselves in this situation, our agency is offering assistance in the form of short-term payment agreements and, in most instances, waivers of penalties and interest.

We ask that you contact our Enforcement Hotline at 800-252-8880 to learn about your options for remaining in compliance and avoiding interest and late fees on taxes due.

In addition, we have a variety of online tools for businesses seeking assistance. See our COVID-19 emergency response webpage for access to online tools, tutorials and other resources for tax services, and to establish 24/7 online account access with Webfile.

We're standing by to help Texas businesses during these difficult times.

March 31, 2020

WASHINGTON - Following President Trump's signing of the historic Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza and Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin today announced that the SBA and Treasury Department have initiated a robust mobilization effort of banks and other lending institutions to provide small businesses with the capital they need.
The CARES Act establishes a new $349 billion Paycheck Protection Program. The Program will provide much-needed relief to millions of small businesses so they can sustain their businesses and keep their workers employed.

"This legislation provides small business job retention loans to provide eight weeks of payroll and certain overhead to keep workers employed," said Secretary Mnuchin. "Treasury and the Small Business Administration expect to have this program up and running by April 3rd so that businesses can go to a participating SBA 7(a) lender, bank, or credit union, apply for a loan, and be approved on the same day. The loans will be forgiven as long as the funds are used to keep employees on the payroll and for certain other expenses."

"This unprecedented public-private partnership is going to assist small businesses with accessing capital quickly. Our goal is to position lenders as the single point-of-contact for small businesses - the application, loan processing, and disbursement of funds will all be administered at the community level," said Administrator Carranza. "Speed is the operative word; applications for the emergency capital can begin as early as this week, with lenders using their own systems and processes to make these loans. We remain committed to supporting our nation's more than 30 million small businesses and their employees, so that they can continue to be the fuel for our nation's economic engine."
The new loan program will help small businesses with their payroll and other business operating expenses. It will provide critical capital to businesses without collateral requirements, personal guarantees, or SBA fees - all with a 100% guarantee from SBA. All loan payments will be deferred for six months. Most importantly, the SBA will forgive the portion of the loan proceeds that are used to cover the first eight weeks of payroll costs, rent, utilities, and mortgage interest.

The Paycheck Protection Program is specifically designed to help small businesses keep their workforce employed. Visit SBA.gov/Coronavirus for more information on the Paycheck Protection Program.
• The new loan program will be available retroactive from Feb. 15, 2020, so employers can rehire their recently laid-off employees through June 30, 2020.

LOAN TERMS & CONDITIONS
• Eligible businesses: All businesses, including non-profits, Veterans organizations, Tribal concerns, sole proprietorships, self-employed individuals, and independent contractors, with 500 or fewer employees, or no greater than the number of employees set by the SBA as the size standard for certain industries
• Maximum loan amount up to $10 million
• Loan forgiveness if proceeds used for payroll costs and other designated business operating expenses in the 8 weeks following the date of loan origination (due to likely high subscription, it is anticipated that not more than 25% of the forgiven amount may be for non-payroll costs)
• All loans under this program will have the following identical features:
o Interest rate of 0.5%
o Maturity of 2 years
o First payment deferred for six months
o 100% guarantee by SBA
o No collateral
o No personal guarantees
o No borrower or lender fees payable to SBA