City of Hoover, chamber reach out to help small businesses hurt by COVID-19

The city of Hoover and Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce are taking numerous steps to help business owners who are feeling the effects of the new coronavirus, including waiving late payment penalties for municipal lodging taxes and sales taxes for small businesses.

Both the city and chamber have set up online resources to assist businesses and to help Hoover residents and visitors support businesses during the current crisis.

The city’s decision to waive late payment fees on certain taxes followed a similar decision by the state of Alabama to waive late payment penalties for its portion of lodging and sales taxes for small businesses.

The waivers apply to businesses whose monthly retail sales during the previous calendar year averaged $62,500 or less and taxpayers currently registered as engaging in NAICS Sector 72 business activities, which includes restaurants and other food service providers.

The late payment penalties are waived through June 1. Businesses still must file their tax paperwork on time; they just don’t have to pay immediately.

Any business owners with questions may call the Hoover Revenue Department at 205-444-7516.

The city also has launched a Business Resource Hotline for businesses in Hoover affected by the COVID-19 crisis. Business owners may call 205-739-7162 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and share any issues they are facing related to the disease.

City staff will collect the information, share with city officials and work to make connections with entities that can help, according to a news release from the city.

The city also has a COVID-19 resource page on the city’s website that outlines resources from local, state and federal agencies, including information from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Internal Revenue Service, Alabama Department of Insurance and Alabama Department of Labor. That resource page was set up March 16 and is being updated regularly, city officials said.

Meanwhile, the Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce has launched a website at EatShopPlayHoover.com as a way to encourage shopping in the city and help businesses make it through a period that includes forced government closures and limitations on how business can be conducted.

The website includes information about how people can continue to shop or buy food, merchandise or services during the business slowdown. Most importantly, there are links to business websites that allow people to buy gift cards that can be used at a later time but supply immediate cash flow to the business, chamber officials said.

The website also includes a way for businesses and other organizations that are offering assistance related to the COVID-19 crisis to communicate that information with the chamber so it can be shared more broadly.

For more information about the eatshopplayhoover.com website, contact chamber Executive Director April Stone at 205-988-5672 or at april@hooverchamber.org.