PRLA Restaurant & Lodging Matters Spring 2021

Spring 2021 • PENNSYLVANIA RESTAURANT & LODGING matters • 17 Increasing consumer confidence in on-premises dining with a national TV campaign. PRLA partnered with the National Restaurant Association on its first consumer ad campaign welcoming diners back to their favorite local restaurants, highlighting the health and safety practices operators and employees are implementing.  Saving restaurants $15.7 billion with PPP deductibility Restaurant operators who used their PPP loans to pay qualified expenses didn’t have to worry about surprise federal tax bills because PRLA and the National Restaurant Association got this loophole fixed.  Expanding ERTC to support employment Employee Retention Tax Credits (ERTC) are key tax benefits used by many restaurants. Because of a change pursued by PRLA and the National Restaurant Association, restaurants can now receive up to $28,000 per eligible employee in ERTC across 2020 and 2021. “We’ve lost 110,000 restaurants nationwide to the pandemic so far, but the combined efforts of the innovative and hard-working restaurant owners and employees in every community, along with these many accomplishments, may have kept our losses from being far greater,” said Tom Bené, President & CEO of the National Restaurant Association and CEO of the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation. “While we don’t expect the industry to fully recover this year, the National Restaurant Association and our state restaurant association partners will continue to aggressively pursue the necessary resources to rebuild the industry. Restaurants are an essential part of all our lives, and in the coming year we look forward to welcoming friends and families back to our tables.” • The latest information about how Pennsylvania restaurants are rebuilding is updated regularly on www.prla.org.