Small/Mid-Dimension Employers Might Be Reimbursed for Paid Household Vaccination Go away!

As part of his COVID-19 vaccination drive, President Biden recently announced that (among other things) the program that reimburses certain employers for granting paid leave to workers for certain COVID-19-related reasons to include family / household member leave vaccinated (and, although not part of the presidential statement, caring for them if they experience any side effects from the vaccine). So I was trying to figure out how that actually works.

If you remember, at the start of the pandemic, Congress passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. Among (many) other things, the FFCRA has imposed two vacation mandates on employers with fewer than 500 employees: specific COVID-19-related reasons; and (2) a temporary extension of coverage under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to allow employees to take their twelve-week FMLA vacation for school and childcare closures related to COVID-19 (EFMLA), including a ten week paid vacation component. Significantly, employers are reimbursed for the cost of vacation or leave in the form of a tax credit.

Those mandates expired on December 31, 2020, but the stimulus package passed by Congress on December 22, 2020 allowed insured employers to voluntarily allow their employees to use any remaining EPSL or EFMLA and the corresponding tax credit through March 31, 2021 to obtain. The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) then extended the voluntary leave of absence program for tax credits until 30 to recover from the side effects of the vaccine and to allow EFMLA to be used for any reason, not just for school / childcare closings, like discussed in our E-Lert from March 12, 2021.

Significantly, the last of the six reasons for leave originally given by the FFCRA was a “substantially similar condition” as set by the HHS Secretary in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury and the Minister of Labor. Well that happened now! (All kinds of excitement here!)

In its recently updated FFCRA / ARPA Tax Credit FAQs, the Internal Revenue Service claims that the HHS secretary stated (although I can’t find anything on the HHS website itself …) that an employee who is on vacation is asking for one Individual receiving vaccination related to COVID-19 or caring for an individual recovering from an injury, disability, illness or condition related to vaccination who has a “substantially similar condition”. For the purposes of the FFCRA, “individual” means an immediate family member, a person who regularly resides in the worker’s home, or a similar person with whom the worker has a relationship that creates an expectation that the worker will care for the person .

For example, insured employers (yes, those with fewer than 500 employees) can now offer their employees paid sick leave or paid family and sick leave to take their family / household members to the vaccination or to care for them if they experience side effects from the vaccine . Note, however, that this is not the full payment! In accordance with the FFCRA / ARPA, family vaccination vacation is paid at 2/3 of the employee’s regular pay, up to $ 200 per day (maximum of $ 2,000 for EPSL, $ 12,000 for EFMLA). And remember, this program ends on September 30th, 2021. The IRS provides detailed information in its FAQs on how employers can claim reimbursement of tax credits for this vacation.