Providing Essentials for Frontline Workers Act

This bill allows an employer a payroll tax credit for certain pandemic-related employee benefit expenses paid by such employer after March 12, 2020, and before January 1, 2021. The amount of such credit is 50% of the pandemic-related expenses of essential employees and 30% for other employees. The amount of expenses taken into account for purposes of the credit for any employee may not exceed $5,000 in any calendar quarter.

The bill defines qualified pandemic-related employee benefit expenses as amounts paid to an employee that are excludible from gross income as disaster relief payments related to COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) and that the employee has elected to treat as a pandemic-related expense.

The credit is not allowed to the federal government or its agencies, except for tax-exempt organizations.