The IRS has finally issued much-awaited FAQ on Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). Notably, the IRS has taken a much stricter interpretation of the FFCRA than many practitioners (including me!) were when attempting to interpret the law without any guidance. I highly encourage businesses to review the website and FAQ – because the FFCRA is a tax credit act, HR may usually shy away from reading IRS guidance. However, it does provide important guidance about eligible employees, ages of children, amount of parents that can take the leave at one time, etc.

The guidance also provides that employers must retain records and documentation related to and supporting each leave request as well as Form 942, Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Reurn and Form 7200, Advance of Employer Credits Due To COVID-19, and any other filings made to the IRS. In order to get the news out quickly, I’m going to keep this short and sweet for now and encourage all employers (both HR and finance side) to start by reviewing the IRS FAQs on COVID-19 and FFCRA.  Combine that guidance with the DOL guidance and I think we’re starting to get a much better handle on this than a few days ago!