WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Ben Cardin (D-MD), and Patty Murray (D-WA) introduced The Restaurant Revitalization Tax Credit Act. This legislation creates a special tax credit available to businesses that applied for the Small Business Administration (SBA) Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF) program but were unable to receive a grant because the program ran out of funding. Nearly 2 of every 3 eligible RRF applicants, or approximately 175,000 businesses, were left unassisted. The Restaurant Revitalization Tax Credit (RRTC) will help restaurants still struggling to recover after two of the most challenging years in the history of the food and beverage industry meet increased labor costs and other rising operational expenses.

“Restaurants clearly are anchors in so many communities – more than just a place to eat, they are destinations, engines for local economies and small businesses that employee our neighbors,” said Brown. “I’m proud to introduce the Restaurant Revitalization Fund Tax Credit for the thousands of qualified restaurants that did not get the help they needed and are still working hard to stay afloat.”

The Restaurant Revitalization Tax Credit Act establishes the RRTC, which is available to eligible employers to offset payroll taxes of up to $25,000 per quarter in calendar year 2023. For businesses with 10 or fewer employees, the credit is refundable up to a total of $25,000 over the course of the year, with the cap on refundability gradually phased out for businesses with fewer than 20 employees. The credit is open only to those businesses that applied for and were eligible to receive RRF grants. They also must have experienced average operating losses of at least 30 percent in 2020 and 2021 as compared to 2019 or losses of at least 50 percent in either calendar years 2020 or 2021 as compared to 2019. In addition, a business must have been in operation prior to March 14, 2020, and have paid payroll tax in at least two quarters in 2021.