COVID-19 Relief Bill and Relocation Alert

As we are all adapting to the changes the COVID-19 pandemic has brought, we want to continue providing information that may impact your relocating employees.
 
On March 27, 2020, the President signed into law a massive coronavirus relief package. A key component of the package provides U.S. individual taxpayers with a relief payment. Full payments are limited to individuals with adjusted gross income of less than $75,000 and married couples with adjusted gross income less than $150,000.
 
Many employees who relocated in 2018 or 2019 may not be eligible for the relief payment or will have the amount reduced. This is due to an employee’s adjusted gross income generally being much higher in the year of a relocation, due to the taxable relocation benefits provided.
 
For example, a 2019 transferee with a normal adjusted gross income of $70,000, who received $30,000 of taxable relocation benefits, would not qualify for a relief payment.
 
There will likely be multiple questions raised by your transferring employees related to this issue. However, the legislation includes provisions that may mitigate this concern for 2018 and 2019 transferees, based on tax credits. In addition, the statute will affect some of those who move in 2020. 
 
We are providing a link below to the Worldwide Employee Relocation Council (WERC) website where Pete Scott, WERC Tax Council, has provided analysis and several examples of the potential impact.
 
https://www.worldwideerc.org/news/mobile-employees-may-be-affected-by-relief-checks-calculation