What to Expect as Restaurants Begin Reopening
Across the country. While much of country is still under stay-at-home orders, many states are beginning to roll out multi-phase plans allowing non-essential businesses to reopen this month. In addition to salons and gyms being permitted to open, many restaurants, which were hit especially hard during the coronavirus pandemic, have started welcoming customers back into their dining rooms this spring — but things are definitely going to look a little different. So far, 24 states have begun to reopen restaurants, or have plans to do so soon, with various restrictions still in place.
How Much Restaurants Earn from Delivery Apps
Viral post raises questions. After the coronavirus pandemic shuttered dining rooms across the country, restaurant owners quickly began relying on delivery and pick-up orders as their primary sources of income. For many dining establishments that don’t have a fleet of drivers, food delivery apps help introduce small businesses to a wider range of customers. But partnering with third-party apps can also be incredibly costly. Long before the pandemic, some restaurateurs had been trying to shed a light on how expensive convenience can be when it comes to getting food delivered in the modern era. Now that these platforms have become the only way certain restaurants can continue operating, that harsh reality has brought new attention to the issue.
NJBIA Urges Swift Passage of Business Tax Deferral Bill
The key to a bill like this is speed. NJBIA is calling for swift passage of legislation before the Assembly Appropriations Committee today to create a program to allow businesses to defer sales and payroll taxes as they struggle to survive being all but shut down for six weeks. The key to a bill like this is speed for the businesses that need every bit of immediate liquidity just to stay afloat, so for this bill to be successful, it can hopefully become law soon. The bill, A-4030 (Mukherji, D-33), would establish the Employment and Business-Related Tax Deferral Assistance Program in the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (EDA) to allow small businesses to defer the payment and remittance of certain employment and business-related taxes during COVID-19 public health emergency.
How Some of the Most Popular US Resort Towns
Are welcoming back visitors after the coronavirus shutdown. States that have begun reopening are already seeing promising activity in their tourist destinations. After hotel occupancy plummeted in the weeks following the pandemic, it experienced a slight uptick during the first weekend of relaxed restrictions. The hotel occupancy rate in the US was 28.6% percent the last week of April, compared to 26% the prior week, according to The Real Deal, citing hospitality data firm STR. More resort towns across the US are following suit, slowly reopening their economies in hopes of bringing in tourism dollars. Consider Ocean City, Maryland, which reopened its beaches and boardwalk on Saturday. From Lake Tahoe to Myrtle Beach, here are some of the resort towns trying to reopen.
Did You Know?
Small business strategies to put tax deductions to work for you. The federal tax reform law created a new business income deduction for 92% of businesses in the United States, and during a recent NJBIA webinar, an expert from Putnam Investments walked small businesses owners through the details so they don’t miss out on it. The recent reduction of the corporate tax rate from a marginal 35% to a flat 21% has grabbed all the headlines, but it affects only the very largest companies, said Patrick Caine, senior wealth management specialist at Putnam Investments. Most U.S. businesses, 92%, are pass-through entities — S-Corps, LLCs, sole proprietors or general partnerships. The Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017 gave them something else: a new 20% qualified business income (QBI) deduction.
Employee Tip
35 virtual field trips for kids who are sick of being stuck at home. While your kids may be stuck inside physically, online tours still give them some access to the rest of the outside world. The same way school has gone digital — with remote homeschooling, live-streamed extra-curricular classes, and learning-at-home portals wherever you look — class trips have moved online, too. These virtual field trips for kids will have them gazing at world-class art, learning about history, discovering science, and even checking out what it’s like in outer space. Of course, these are still screen experiences. If you want to make the most out of a virtual field trip, try to get your kids to continue to engage with the material even after they’ve turned off their devices. Depending on their age, they could either draw what they most remember or what their favorite part of the “trip” was, or write out a couple of facts that they’ve learned. If you plan on doing many of these, you can even create a binder to act as a log for your virtual explorer.
Bielat Santore & Company – Restaurant Industry Daily Alerts
New restaurant industry survey. Beginning next Wednesday, May 6th, Bielat Santore & Company will conduct a survey of restaurant owners and operators throughout the NY-NJ-PA metropolitan area, emphasizing the challenges the industry is facing during COVID-19 pandemic.
The firm will donate $1 dollar for every valid survey response it receives to the Independent Restaurant Coalition (IRC). The Independent Restaurant Coalition was formed to save the local restaurants affected by COVID-19. “Our firm is committed to working with the active community of restauranteurs and hospitality operators, many of whom are our clients, to help with the rescue and reopening of their industry,” states Richard Santore, Partner in Bielat Santore & Company.
Look for the survey to appear in next Wednesday’s Restaurant Industry Daily Alert, as well as on the company’s website at www.123bsc.com/news/ and Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/123BSC/ In addition to the company’s monetary donation, if enough survey responses are submitted, Bielat Santore & Company will publish a comprehensive report compiling the results of the survey for distribution.
A voice for our industry. If you are finding these daily bulletins informative and beneficial during this pandemic, we kindly ask that you write a brief Google review providing a vote of your appreciation. Simply Google “Bielat Santore & Company” and when the company name appears click the button on the right to write your review or; if you don’t use Gmail, go to Google Maps, type “Bielat Santore & Company” – Allenhurst, NJ into Google Maps; scroll down and you will see an option to leave a review.
Thank you and remember all of the “Restaurant Industry Alerts” and “Thursday Restaurant Rap” interviews can be found at www.123bsc.com/news/. We intend to continue to keep you informed as we all look for an end to this crisis.
