Business tax breaks 4.16.21

YOU COULD BE SAVING HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS THANKS TO A TAX FREEZE.

Up.

You could be saving hundreds of dollars thanks to a tax freeze.

Abc 36's monica harkins explains.

### back to business...but even with things starting to shift back to normal...businesses like great bagel say there's still some leftover hurt from 2020.

"swan: it's a struggle, it's a struggle to stay afloat, you know you're doing everything you can to kinda hustle and make it."

Robert swan owns the bagel shop and has for the last decade and like so many others it's been a year he'll never forget.

Swan: "2020 was hard, it was hard, we're not doing anywhere near the sales we were."

Thanks to state lawmakers.... business owners like swan can take a little bit off their plate when it comes to paying unemployment insurance taxes.

Because the general assembly passed a bill that freezes the tax rate to what it was before the pandemic.

Kate shanks with the kentucky chamber of commerce says the measure was incredibly important to pass this session because this year would've seen a tremendous hike without it.

Kate shanks:"our unemployment insurance trust fund became so depleted during the pandemic due to record unemployment, that it triggered us from going really, from what is probably the least cost tax schedule to the highest cost tax schedule for employers."

She says if the schedule hadn't been frozen...employers would have seen a hundred dollar increase per employee in addition to what they already were paying.

Shanks: "it really takes some of the weight off the shoulders of employers so that they can then hire more workers, potentially expand their business and really recover from what has been an economic crisis unlike anything we have ever seen."

And for swan...he says hiring more workers has turned out easier said than done.

Swan: "we can't find people that want to work and that's our biggest challenge right now."

In lexington monica harkins abc 36 news.

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