Assembly Continues Working to Ensure Small Businesses Keep Critical Grant Funding to Aid in COVID-19 Recovery

Speaker Carl Heastie, Small Business Committee Chair Al Stirpe and Assemblymember Erik Dilan today announced that the Assembly has passed legislation to help small businesses across New York by ensuring that grants from the COVID-19 Pandemic Small Business Recovery Grant Program are exempt from personal income tax and corporate franchise tax (A.8033, Dilan). This will ensure that this critical grant funding is used to help businesses recover from the economic crisis brought on by the pandemic.

“So many of our small businesses are still struggling to recover from the impacts of the pandemic,” Speaker Heastie said. “In the budget, we secured $800 million for the COVID-19 Pandemic Small Business Recovery Grant Program to help them survive the pandemic. This legislation will ensure the small businesses that received this critical funding are able to keep the grant money that helped them keep their doors open, and stay on the road to recovery.”

“COVID-19 dealt a devastating blow to our state’s economy, and the Assembly Majority has been working to provide the tools and resources our small businesses need to recover,” Assemblymember Stirpe said. “By making the COVID-19 Pandemic Small Business Recovery Grant Program exempt from taxes, we ensure that our small businesses are able to use that funding to get back on their feet.”

“The grants from the COVID-19 Pandemic Small Business Recovery Grant Program were never intended to be taxable income, this bill will make sure that that is the case,” Assemblymember Dilan said. “I will keep working with my Assembly Majority colleagues to get our small businesses and families the aid and support they need to recover from the health and economic crises of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The legislation, which has now been signed into law, will provide an exemption from the personal income tax and the corporate franchise tax for grants received through the COVID-19 Pandemic Small Business Recovery Grant Program. This will ensure that the critical grant funding small businesses received will not be categorized as taxable income.

The COVID-19 Pandemic Small Business Recovery Grant Program was passed as part of the State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2021-22 Budget, and included $800 million in grant funding for small businesses to cover various business costs including payroll; rent or mortgage payments; payment of local property or school taxes; insurance; utilities; personal protective equipment (PPE) necessary to protect worker and consumer health and safety; heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) or other machinery or equipment costs necessary for compliance with COVID-19 health and safety protocols.