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Rep. Tom Rice (R-S.C.) introduced legislation yesterday that would provide a tax credit for businesses to safely reopen and pay for extra safety measures amid the coronavirus pandemic, The Hill reported. The Healthy Workplaces Tax Credit would provide a refundable tax credit against payroll taxes for 50 percent of the costs incurred by a business for COVID-19 testing, personal protective equipment (PPE), disinfecting, extra cleaning and reconfiguring work spaces to adhere to social distancing guidelines. The credit is limited to $1,000 per employee for a business’s first 500 employees, $750 per employee for the next 500 employees and $500 for each employee after that. For example, if a restaurant with 40 employees spends $60,000 on PPE, testing, disinfecting and plexiglass shields, it would receive a $30,000 tax credit against its payroll. The legislation is intended to encourage and enable businesses to take the recommended steps to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in their workplaces. Rice, who is on the House Ways and Means Committee, introduced the bill as an addition to legislation from Rep. Darin LaHood (R-Ill.) that would create a temporary tax credit to offset costs of cleaning.

The International Monetary Fund warned that the rate of bankruptcy for small- and medium-sized businesses may triple this year in the absence of sufficient government support, threatening to stall the economic recovery and cause financial instability, Bloomberg News reported. A staff analysis of 17 countries suggests that bankruptcies for the firms could surge to 12 percent, from 4 percent before the pandemic, the IMF said in a report today. Italy would see the biggest increase due to a large drop in aggregate demand and high share of production in contact-intensive industries. Across the Group of 20, relief from taxes and social security contributions, grants and interest rate subsidies have been an important salve, the IMF said. Bankruptcy rates in the services sector in the average country may climb by more than 20 percentage points in administration services, arts, entertainment and recreation, and education. Essential activities like agriculture, water and waste may experience only small growth in bankruptcy rates, the IMF said. More than one third of small businesses in Canada, South Korea, the U.K. and U.S. worry about viability or expect to close permanently within the next year, according to the Washington-based fund. While the fiscal costs of support for firms are substantial and rising debt levels are a serious concern, the costs of premature withdrawal are greater than the cost of continued support where needed, Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said in a related blog post.

The White House and Senate Republicans are developing plans to prod schools to reopen by attaching incentives or conditions to tens of billions of dollars of new aid as part of the next coronavirus relief bill, people involved in the talks said yesterday. The deliberations come as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) prepares to unveil legislation next week that would serve as the GOP’s opening offer for negotiations on what could be Congress’s last major coronavirus spending bill before the November elections. Republican officials familiar with the negotiations said the bill may include somewhere between $50 billion and $100 billion for elementary and secondary schools, with one person familiar with the talks saying the target was about $70 billion. Negotiators are looking at $20 billion to $30 billion for higher education, GOP officials said. The officials cautioned that the sums were fluid and that no final decisions had been made. McConnell has said repeatedly that education spending — along with health care and jobs — is going to be a central theme of the next coronavirus bill.

The House Small Business Committee will hold a hearing today at 1 p.m. ET titled "Long-Lasting Solutions for a Small Business Recovery." According to the committee, the hearing will explore efforts to stimulate small business growth following the Great Recession, applying those programs to the COVID-19 crisis, and new ideas to help industries that have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. Click here for a list of witnesses, prepared testimony and a link to access the live webstream today of the hearing.