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New York is loosening some COVID-19 restrictions this week, signaling a step toward normalcy for a wide range of businesses. But for fitness studios such as Y7 Studio, Barry’s Bootcamp and Mile High Run Club that managed to endure a year of devastated sales, the fight for survival is hardly over, Bloomberg News reported. They must navigate fast-changing and confusing rules. New York has said fitness centers can operate at 50% capacity as of May 15, but also says that, as of Wednesday, it is not basing capacity limits for businesses on a percentage of maximum occupancy, but rather on how many people can fit in a space while staying six feet apart. For small-format workout facilities, that might not be much of a reprieve. Meanwhile, these operators face delicate decisions about what masking rules to enforce at their businesses now that state mandates have eased. Many are finding it difficult to rehire and retrain instructors to adequately staff a full schedule. And none of them know how eager customers will be to return, given lingering virus fears and the possibility that last year’s at-home exercise routines turn out to have staying power.

Less than 3% of the roughly 30 million small-business owners in the United States could face tax increases under President Joe Biden's jobs and infrastructure plan, according to a new analysis by the White House on Friday, Reuters reported. The White House has been seeking to leverage the support and political popularity of small-business owners in its fight to raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% on large corporations such as Walmart Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. The move has faced stiff opposition from large national trade groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable. The proposed increase in the corporate tax rate to 28% would not affect any small business that file taxes as a "passthrough entity" such as a limited liability corporation, said a senior administration official. Nearly all small businesses fall in that category, the official said. The proposed increase in the top income tax bracket by 2.6 percentage points for single earners who earn over $452,700 annually and married couples above $509,300 per year — "would affect less than 3 percent of passthrough business owners," the official said.

Lawmakers have unleashed more than $5 trillion in relief aid over the past year to help businesses and individuals through the pandemic downturn. But the scale of that effort is placing serious strain on a patchwork oversight network created to ferret out waste and fraud, the New York Times reported. The Biden administration has taken steps to improve accountability and oversight safeguards spurned by the Trump administration, including more detailed and frequent reporting requirements for those receiving funds. But policing the money has been complicated by long-running turf battles; the lack of a centralized, fully functional system to track how funds are being spent; and the speed with which the government has tried to disburse aid. The scope of oversight is vast, with the Biden administration policing the tail end of the relief money disbursed by the Trump administration last year in addition to the $1.9 trillion rescue package that Democrats approved in March. Much of that money is beginning to flow out the door, including $21.6 billion in rental assistance funds, $350 billion to state and local governments, $29 billion for restaurants and a $16 billion grant fund for live-event businesses like theaters and music clubs. The funds are supposed to be tracked by a hodgepodge of overseers, including congressional panels, inspectors general and the White House budget office. But the system has been plagued by disagreements and, until recently, disarray.

A big shift toward working from home is endangering hundreds of locally owned Manhattan storefronts that have been hanging on, waiting for life to return to the desolate streets of Midtown and the Financial District, the New York Times reported. The fate of these stores, and by extension the country’s two largest business hubs, will hinge in large part on how long landlords will keep offering the rent breaks that have kept many retailers afloat. Landlords themselves are under growing financial pressure as office vacancies soar and commuters and visitors stay away. At risk is Manhattan’s unique retail culture — the jewelers, barber shops, event spaces and bars — that has long brought vibrancy and familiarity to the street-level canyons of its skyscraper-filled office districts. “Right now, we’re suffering,” said Gili Vaturi, who operates Torino Jewelers on Lexington Avenue. She said her sales are still so weak that she is not covering all of her costs even with a much-reduced rent deal with her landlord, GFP Real Estate, which owns dozens of Manhattan properties and has a large minority stake in the landmark Flatiron Building. Even as the national economy snaps back, the mostly empty office buildings in Manhattan mean many storefronts have not yet seen a rebound. The stores are a crucial contributor to New York’s economy and employment. While the city is home to some of the largest companies in the world, small businesses employed about 900,000 people and made up 98 percent of all businesses before the pandemic. Employment at small service industry businesses in Manhattan neighborhoods with lots of office buildings was down 20 percent from prepandemic levels at the beginning of March, according to Gusto, which provides payroll and benefits services. In the wider New York metropolitan area, employment at such businesses is down much less, 6 percent. “Right now, small business jobs are disappearing from cities — and may never come back even after the vaccination is widespread and the economy fully reopens,” said Luke Pardue, an economist at Gusto.