AICPA offers FAQs for helping health care clients during coronavirus

The American Institute of CPAs has created a set of questions and answers to help practitioners deal with some of the issues related to preparing and auditing financial statements for health care providers amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, including the Paycheck Protection Program.

The AICPA’s Health Care Industry COVID-19 Issues and FAQs page provides non-authoritative guidance on accounting and auditing matters to help financial statement preparers as well as practitioners who perform financial statement audit engagements for their health care clients.

The guidance offers advice for health care providers who have taken out PPP loans under the CARES Act, including what risks they should be thinking about now, such as ensuring they are keeping the proper documentation needed to qualify for forgiveness of the loan, avoiding “double-dipping” against other programs, and being prepared to defend their certificate of need.

For auditors, the guidance offers information about audit tests of PPP loans and single audits. CPA services for clients who are requesting forgiveness of their PPP loans, and qualified business income deductions, are also covered.

Apart from the PPP, the FAQs also deal with other subjects such as funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and what expenses and costs for health care facilities are covered by FEMA funds, as well as the 2020 payroll tax deferral under the CARES Act, how the payroll tax deferral is reported, and how it interacts with PPP loans.

The guidance also discusses the Employee Retention Credit, who can take the credit, how it’s calculated, and how it interacts with other tax credits and stimulus provisions, among other matters.

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AICPA Coronavirus Paycheck Protection Program CARES Act Audit Audit preparation Tax credits
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