In this episode of Ropes & Gray's podcast series, Disputing Tax, Pascal Mayer, a senior attorney in the employment, executive compensation & employee benefits group, is joined by Kat Gregor and Loretta Richard, partners in the tax, employment & benefits practice and co-founders of the tax controversy group, to discuss the payroll tax provisions of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Act (also known as the CARES Act) and factors that employers should consider in their coronavirus response. Enacted on March 27, and commonly referred to as "Phase 3" of the federal government's response to the coronavirus pandemic, the CARES Act provides immediate financial relief to eligible employers by allowing them to retain some payments that would otherwise be owed to the federal government, through employee retention credits and deferral of the employer portion of social security tax payments. This assistance may be critically important to employers who are struggling to meet costs when faced with diminishing revenues or who had their operations fully or partially suspended due to governmental orders.

Originally published by Ropes & Gray, July 2020

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