business after pandemic 1918

The Maldives will soon be offering vaccinations to visitors upon arrival. This is part of their tripartite initiative to revitalize the country’s hard-hit travel sector, said the tourism minister.

Currently, visitors to the Maldives must present a negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test and proof of hotel booking to gain entry. Mausoom said the country’s health protection agency will “very soon – maybe even this week” make an announcement of unrestricted entry to vaccinated arrivals.

The Maldives, an archipelago state in South Asia known for its tropical beaches and pristine waters, is heavily dependent on its tourism industry. Around 67% of the gross domestic product (GDP) comes directly and indirectly from the sector.

The Minister of Tourism would not be pressured into a timetable for introducing visitor vaccination. He noted that the government’s priority is to ensure that all resident populations get their first and second shots first.

However, once that process is complete, the country will be ready to vaccinate arrivals, he said.

I don’t think the supply in the Maldives is a problem because our population is relatively small.

Abdulla Mausoom

Minister of Tourism, Maldives

To date, according to Reuters’ vaccination tracker, around 53% of the approximately 530,000 inhabitants of the island state have received their first dose. Around 90% of frontline tourism workers have received their first dose, Mausoom said.

Mausoom didn’t say whether the comers are expected to pay for their shots, but he said supplies would not be an issue.

He said the country has received vaccine donations from India, China and the World Health Organization’s Covax program, which is designed to ensure vaccines are distributed fairly and equitably. The Maldives have also ordered additional supplies from Singapore, he said.

“I don’t think the supply in the Maldives is a problem because our population is relatively small,” said Mausoom. “The quota that we receive from the various organizations and friendly nations will also help.”

White sand and clear water in the Maldives.

Mausoom said the tourism campaign is a necessary strategy to help the country meet its goal of 1.5 million tourist arrivals and 10 million overnight stays this year.

“If we achieve this year’s goal, we will still be short of the country’s needs,” he said. “Still, that’s a lot better than we expected at the end of 2020.”

Work – Working in the Maldives has become very trendy. You see very rich executives, executives of companies who come here and are based here.

Customer Tamara Jenkins will try on a hat with Meeka Robinson Davis, owner of One-Of-A-Kind Hats, in the store in the Windsor Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles on November 24, 2020.

Small businesses are finding that they may not have much time to access the paycheck protection program as they thought.

That’s because the money is running out.

Legislators overwhelmingly supported the extension of the PPP last month, postponing the March 31 deadline to May 31. The program, established by the CARES Act last year to provide small business loans that are forgivable when used primarily on payroll, reopened in January for a second round of more than 284 Billion dollars.

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The American rescue plan passed in March provided the PPP with an additional $ 7.25 billion, bringing the total to nearly $ 292 million.

As of April 5, the Small Business Administration, which oversees the program, has approved nearly 4 million PPP loans worth approximately $ 224 billion, according to the agency. That means there is roughly $ 68 billion left.

The idea of ​​running out of money hadn’t crossed my mind, at least in this round of the program, until shortly before the extension. In a March 24 hearing before the Senate Committee on Small Business Entrepreneurship, Patrick Kelley, associate administrator at the SBA Office of Capital Access, noted that there is about $ 79 billion left on the PPP, which will be depleted by mid-April would pace if applications were continued with a similar company.

Additionally, at this point the SBA had around 190,000 loans held to fix pending application issues, which continued to draw on the remaining funds.

“This program, as you know, won’t resume until May 30th due to a tight budget,” said Erik Asgeirsson, president and CEO of CPA.com, the business and technology arm of the American Institute of CPAs. “I don’t think anyone knew the money was going to run out until the SBA made this announcement.”

The bumpy road of the PPP

Although the program has helped millions of companies keep employees on their payroll, the program has been plagued with problems from the start thanks to its rapid adoption. The first round ran out quickly, with the money going mostly to larger, more established companies, leaving out those most at risk.

When the second round opened in January, smaller businesses had better access to funding, but processing times took longer as the SBA introduced new anti-fraud rules.

Further changes created more confusion. In February, the Biden administration announced updates to program eligibility, a new credit calculation formula for sole proprietorships, and a two-week priority application window for companies with fewer than 20 employees.

The aim was to give the smallest companies, which are mostly owned by women and colored people, access to the forgivable means. However, the timing of the new rules left little time for companies to take advantage of them. Additionally, sole proprietorships who applied before the new loan calculation was announced were upset as the difference could be thousands of dollars in forgivable funding.

We have finally reached a point where we have some equity for our hardest-to-reach and most underserved businesses.

Some taxpayers have yet to send money to Uncle Sam this April, despite the fact that the IRS has extended the tax filing season to May 17th.

Those making estimated tax payments still have to pay their first quarterly levy, due on the original April 15th tax return deadline.

This includes people whose income cannot be withheld, such as B. Self-employment income, interest, dividends, rent and alimony, according to the IRS.

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This primarily affects freelance and gig employees, as well as small business employees such as sole proprietorships, partners, and S Corporation shareholders – generally anyone who doesn’t work for an employer who withholds taxes from their paychecks.

The due date is a change from 2020 when the IRS moved the deadline for the first of four estimated tax payments due to the coronavirus pandemic to July 15. However, the agency did not roll back the three remaining payments – the second quarterly payment was also due on July 15, 2020.

What do you have to do

To avoid penalties for underpaying estimated taxes, individuals who owe more than $ 1,000 in tax after withholding taxes and credits must pay the IRS at least 90% tax for the current year or 100% tax for the previous year, as the case may be which value is smaller.

This tax is paid in four quarterly installments and can be sent to the IRS either online or with a check. For those with constant income all year round, these payments are generally the same, but can be varied for those with unequal incomes.

Since taxpayers need to know their last year’s earnings based on their estimated payments, this group is unlikely to be able to take advantage of the extended filing season.

To calculate a quarterly estimated payment, taxpayers must either project their income for the year or have the previous year’s income on hand as they would on their tax return.

“You have yet to complete the 2020 return to get a bottom line estimate,” said Rhonda Collins, director of tax content and government relations for the National Association of Tax Professionals. “So it will still be a bit of work for the taxpayer.”

In addition, small businesses and self-employed people who pay estimated taxes are particularly hard hit by the Covid pandemic and may have several problems that would make tax filing difficult. Some may have loans through the paycheck protection program, a disaster loss loan, or a grant.

“When you put all of these things on top of each other, there really is no relief to these people,” said Barry Melancon, accountant, auditor, and president and CEO of the American Institute of CPAs.

“After a year of slaughter, large companies with deep pockets are triumphing over their smaller competitors who didn’t make it,” said the Mad Money host.

The scenario will play out briskly in the restaurant industry, Cramer said.

Last year, more than 110,000 eating and drinking establishments closed temporarily or permanently during the Covid-19 pandemic. The impact resulted in the loss of 2.5 million jobs in the industry, according to the National Restaurant Association.

Coronavirus restrictions in New York City also pushed Cramer to close the doors of his two Brooklyn neighborhood restaurants until coronavirus vaccines spread and the U.S. health crisis came under control.

“As a restaurant owner, I can tell you that companies like Darden and Chipotle are now getting stakes in empty storefronts,” he said.

In addition to Chiptole and Darden, the parent company of Olive Garden, Cramer pointed to Cheesecake Factory, Yum Brands, Texas Roadhouse and Starbucks as beneficiaries of the current environment.

“Now that tens of thousands of small businesses have gone down so sadly and unfortunately, their bigger rivals are the last of the men, which means they will make a fortune as the country reopens because there is no one left to challenge them.” “

Korena Keys’ small business was hit hard when the pandemic first started last year.

KeyMedia Solutions, a digital media company of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, posted a 60% year-over-year revenue decline in May. She was able to secure a $ 115,000 loan from the Small Business Administration’s paycheck protection program to keep the workers busy until things stabilized.

When Keys received filing from the SBA in January that an additional $ 150,000 loan had been taken out on behalf of her company under the Disaster Loan for Economic Injury program, she believed it was a mistake.

Korena Keys runs a digital marketing company in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She received help from the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program, but found that her identity was stolen in order to obtain a fraudulent loan under the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program for $ 150,000.

“We made a conscious decision not to seek any other assistance,” said Keys. “We thought these funds had to be left for companies that are not doing so well.”

Although she says she didn’t receive the money, the loan is very real and payments of nearly $ 800 a month are slated to start in November. The loan was approved, Keys said, despite the fact that the application contained inaccurate information about their company, including an incorrect phone number, email address, and financial details.

“The shock of that really turned into frustration and anger,” Keys said, adding that several other companies in their community had similar stories of identity theft in these aid programs.

She has filed claims with the Inspectorate General of the SBA and his fraud department, but she has not yet been released from responsibility, although she is hopeful that things will be cleared up before the loan falls due. Hours were spent damaging their business and trying to pay off the loan.

“It definitely caused some sleepless nights,” she said. “Until it’s in writing, I always worry. It’ll just hang over me until it’s done.”

Get help out the door

When the U.S. government and the SBA rushed out of the door last year for companies hit by the pandemic, criminals took advantage of these assistance programs and in some cases stole the identities of business owners to use this information to fraudulently Obtain credits for profits. A recent analysis of SBA’s OBA project fraud under Covid-19 small business programs could reach $ 84 billion.

In total, the U.S. government has provided more than $ 1 trillion in aid to Main Street through the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program. The PPP allows small businesses to take out loans that can be extended if the borrower spends most of the capital on payroll, while the Covid-19 EIDL program gives borrowers access to loans based on temporary loss of revenue due to the pandemic. There was also an advance payment under the EIDL.

The OIG’s review of both programs warned of the potential for criminal exploitation due to the rapid progress of implementation and unprecedented demand for help. A recent memo from the House Select subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis describes how widespread it could be. The memo granted potentially fraudulent EIDL loans and prepayments of $ 79 billion and potentially fraudulent PPP loans of up to $ 4.6 billion.

1.34 million EIDL loans and grants have been sent to the OIG by the SBA, including nearly 750,000 referrals for suspected identity theft and more than 585,000 referrals for other potentially fraudulent activity. There have been nearly 150,000 hotline calls to SBA OIG for tips and complaints about potential fraud – an increase of 19,500% over previous years, the memo says.