Looking for another great reason to offer your employees PTO for getting vaccinated? Now, you can get tax credits for it!
As of May 3, the CDC reports that over 56% of U.S. adults have received at least one dose of the COVID vaccines (the chart updates daily). This is great news for everyone as we look hopefully forward to resuming more regular life activities. At the same time, this means that almost half of the adult population hasn’t yet been vaccinated. While some may have medical or religious reasons for not getting vaccinated, that number wouldn’t be this high. So, there’s a huge need for continuing to encourage your employees to get vaccinated.
For businesses with less than 500 employees, you can now receive a tax credit for offering employees with paid time off to get vaccinated (or recover from any vaccine side effects). Here’s how it works:
- The tax credit equals the employee’s regular wages, up to $511/day for up to 10 days (80 hours).
- You need to also be providing paid sick or family leave for other eligible COVID-related absences.
- You can file for these tax credits quarterly through September 30, 2021.
What’s essentially happening here is that (1) getting vaccinated and (2) recovering from the vaccine have now been added to the FFCRA. (Here’s a refresher of the FFCRA.) While the FFCRA requirements about providing paid sick and family leave expired on December 31, 2020, it didn’t completely go away. Instead, it became optional. Businesses with less than 500 employees can still offer paid leave and can receive tax credits for it. In March 2021, the American Rescue Act Plan was signed, which expanded the FFCRA. Here’s a helpful outline of the changes, including those related to vaccination.
So, what are your next steps?
Continue encouraging your employees to get vaccinated. These communication plan tips can help you design an effective strategy. Make sure to emphasize the paid time off! I’ve heard of some places capping the number of hours of paid leave (for instance, providing up to 4 hours). If you really need to do this for staffing reasons, you could. Otherwise, I would just let employees request what they need. They could find themselves having to travel a long distance or waiting in long lines. They might also be nervous about side effects and want to rest the remainder of the day. Ask employees to work with their managers to try to schedule vaccines at times that work well for everyone. Encourage your managers to be as flexible as they can be.
Talk with your tax advisor about your eligibility for these tax credits. He or she can advise you on the process. You’ll likely need some sort of documentation to file for these tax credits. Even if that part is a bit uncertain right now, plan ahead. You want to make sure you can prove (now or later) that your request for a tax credit was legitimate.
Ask employees to let you know if their time off request is related to getting vaccinated or recovering from the vaccine. Be transparent about why you need to know – you’re providing paid time off and you’ll be filing for tax credits. This can help employees feel more comfortable sharing this information with you. Avoid asking any other health-related questions. You just need to know if the request is for one of those reasons. Then, save the documentation.
Offering PTO for getting vaccinated is a great way to encourage vaccination. It allows employees to get vaccinated as quickly as possible, without having to wait for a time slot outside of work hours. Remember, the more employees you have vaccinated, the less likely you are to have as many COVID-related absences. Everyone wins!
Photo credit: By OlenaMykhaylova / Canva
