When Congress passed the CARES Act with the speed of a surging pandemic, many asked, What does this mean besides a $1,200 stimulus check?
Victoria Dubbelde
Victoria Dubbelde, an accounting lecturer in the Ness School of Management and Economics at SDSU, answered that in the 48-minute webinar “What the CARES Act Means for Your Family.†It was hosted by SDSU Extension’s Heather Gessner and attracted 66 participants with another 66 subsequent viewers from SDSU Extension’s YouTube page.
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act was signed into law March 27 to provide stimulus funding and tax relief totaling $2 trillion.
Preparing for the webinar was “quite challenging because this was all brand-new for all CPAs. All of this happened very quickly and moved very quickly. Within two days of giving the webinar (April 9), rules changed. It’s been quite an interesting project as rules continue to change and be challenged,†Dubbelde said.
As a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, she had been able to view weekly updates from the organization.
Her preparation also included reading much of the 880-page amendment to the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. She described that as challenging, but it proved useful. The closed caption writer for the webinar called her talk the best she had heard on the topic and that she had already captioned many such webinars.
It also led to a separate Zoom presentation with Kelsey Doom, Brookings Area Chamber of Commerce executive director; Al Hueton, executive director of the Brookings Economic Development Corporation; and Jennifer Quail, director of entrepreneur support for the BEDC. She continues to send updates to the trio for their disbursement.
“This whole thing has been a moving target,†said Dubbelde, whose students had just finished doing volunteer tax assistance before spring break arrived.
