Learn About Additional COVID-19 Resources
Useful & actionable information
I’m writing you to give you an update on some of the resources available to help with the economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis.
Most people have heard of the $1,200 stimulus check (per adult, plus $500 for each kid), and that’s fine, but it’s a one-time payment and is generally automatic as long as you filed a 2018 tax return, assuming you don’t make too much.
The real meat of the stimulus is the supplemental unemployment. I’m going to walk you through it.
Shortly after the COVID-19 crisis started, Minnesota loosened up its unemployment rules so it could help more people.
The two most important Minnesota changes are:
- Unemployment for self-employed workers, so gig workers or 1099 workers can get benefits.
- Unemployment related to COVID-19 will not increase your employer’s unemployment tax rate, so businesses won’t be hit with a ridiculous tax when they hire people again.
The best resource is www.uimn.org.
We advise against using any third-party service to claim benefits, as the market is ripe with scammers right now.
Additionally, as part of the new US Stimulus bill, there is an extra $600 per unemployment applicant, per week for about 4 months. Since this passed very recently, MN Unemployment hasn’t integrated it into their system, but I’m guessing they will likely give back pay once they get the system and funding put in place.
If you’ve currently laid off workers, please let them know about this information. If you are asking them to exhaust their vacation, it is probably better for everyone if you can save your money, since we don’t know how long this will last, and encourage them to file for unemployment (remember, they’ll get half their weekly pay plus $600). They can save their vacation for once we can travel again.
This benefit is available for anyone receiving an unemployment check, so even if your hours have been reduced, you should still claim unemployment. Remember, it won’t hurt the employer right now if you say it is by reason of COVID-19.
We are also offering assistance. However, we are offering assistance for a $300 fee paid up front. New clients pay $100 more for priority on-boarding and will obviously need to sign an engagement letter (contract).
You can send a message on this website or email us at hello@sundbergtc.com. rfef
This is a fee for taking our attention away from our stack of tax work, for our experience (because you know we know what’s going on, and even though the information is probably online, it will take time to find it), for directing you to help yourself (that means sending you a link to a resource instead of re-typing what someone else wrote), and answering a lot of little questions you’ll have that the website won’t say (like how much to enter given your facts and circumstances).
It is not to file the application for you, but we will be available by email to help you with your questions, which you will batch as best you can (instead of sending us a million little emails).
The fee is less than the additional benefit you will be getting every week. Once you get your initial claim setup, you won’t need our help.
Also, it is not for help figuring out your computer, uimn username, or uimn password.
I hope this will help all of you.
I hope you are staying safe,
Justin Sundberg
