The enrollment for Phase 2 of the Emergency Relief Program (ERP) starts on Jan 23, 2023. The enrollment for Phase 1 had ended on Dec 16, 2022. The last date to enroll for Phase 2 is set on June 2, 2023.
The relief funding program was included as a part of the Extending Government Funding and Delivering Emergency Assistance Act (P.L. 117-43). The law is calculated to cover a minimum of 750 million US Dollars worth of loss that the livestock producers had to face due to drought and wildfires.
What Is Emergency Relief Program (ERP) Phase 2?
An Overview
The Emergency Relief Program (ERP) would cover the losses that happened to crops, trees, bushes, and vines because of a qualifying natural disaster in the calender years 2020 and 2021. The crops intended for grazing are excluded from the list.
Phase 2 is implemented as a tax-year-based certification program. The ERP Phase 2 would utilize the 2018 and 2019 benchmark years and the 2020 and 2021 disaster years.
What Is The Eligibility For ERP Phase 2?
There are a few mandatory criteria that the applicants have to meet in order to be deemed eligible for phase 2 of ERP.
Regulations have been released in the sections such as residence, qualifying natural disasters, and related conditions.
- Resident Conditions:
The applicant ought to come under the resident conditions:
- An applicant should be a citizen of the United States or
- An applicant should be a resident alien or
- Lawful alien, a partnership consisting of
- A citizen of the United States or
- A resident alien
- Lawful alien, a partnership consisting of
- An applicant should be a corporation or
- An applicant should be a limited liability company or
- An applicant should be in an organizational structure, organized under State law consisting of
- The citizens of the United States or
- The resident aliens
- The Indian Tribe, or
- The Tribal Organization according to
- Section 4 (b) of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5304).
- Qualifying Natural Disaster Events:
The losses that happened to the products only due to particular natural disaster events are qualified to be included in the list. Those disaster events are:
- Wildfires or
- Hurricanes or
- Floods or
- Derechos or
- Excessive heat or
- Winter storms or
- Freeze ( a polar vertex is also qualified) or
- Smoke exposure or
- Moisture or
- Qualifying drought or
related conditions.
The related conditions are defined as unfavorable and damage-causing weather and adverse natural occurrences that had occurred concurrently with and as a direct result of a specified qualifying disaster event.
These are listed as:
- An excessive wind – that occurred as a direct result of a derecho or
- The silt and debris – that happened as a direct result of flooding or
- An excessive wind storm – that occurred as a direct result of a hurricane or
- An excessive storm surge – that happened as a direct result of a hurricane or
- An excessive tornado – that happened as a direct result of a hurricane or
- An excessive tropical storm – that happened as a direct result of a hurricane or
- An excessive tropical depression – that happened as a direct result of a hurricane or
- An excessive wind – that happened as a direct result of a winter storm or
- An excessive blizzard – that happened as a direct result of a winter storm.
- A drought – the drought occurred and loss caused has to come under any county and the occurred loss has to be rated as having had a specific drought intensity by the U.S. Drought Minority. The specifications are:
- D2 – a condition of severe drought for eight consecutive weeks or
- D3 – a condition of extreme drought or
- More high levels of drought intensity
Important Information Required For The ERP Phase 2 Application
The applicants should take care to
- Include the locating supportive documentation which was used for creating the IRS Schedule F.
- Include a copy of the FSA-1099G for the selected benchmark and disaster years.
Make sure they fall under the below definitions:
- Benchmark Year Revenue:
The benchmark year revenue would represent a typical year of income for the operation, associated with the chosen disaster year.
- Adjusted Benchmark yea revenue is used in occasions of :
• The producer not having any revenue in 2018 or 2019.
• The producer not having a full benchmark revenue year in 2018 or 2019.
• The 2018 or 2019 benchmark year revenue was not represented because of a physical expansion or reduction that impacted the operation capacity for the disaster year.
- Disaster Year Revenue:
Disaster Year Revenue is the actual revenue from the year or years in which the producer suffered an eligible loss.
- Representative Tax Year:
Representative tax years are estimated as the tax years 2020, 2021, and 2022, and the Schedule F of the IRS is associated with the chosen disaster year revenue.
The producer should identify:
• The tax years 2020 or 2021 as the representative revenue year for the 2020 disaster year.
• The tax years 2021 or 2022 as the representative revenue year for the 2021 disaster year.
- Producers Who Had Eligible Revenue Losses in Both Disaster Years:
• A provision would be available to select both disaster years on the same application.
• The applicant could use the same benchmark year for both disaster years.
• The applicant could not use the same representative tax year for more than one disaster year
- The disaster year revenue ought to consist of consecutive years.
The Payment Info For The Emergency Relief Program (ERP) Phase 2
Certain payment limitations and adjusted gross income (AGI) regulations exist for the Emergency Relief Program (ERP) Phase 2.
The Payment Limitation And Adjusted Gross Income (AGI)
The payment limitation for the ERP is determined by the average adjusted gross farm income of the applicant person or legal entity. (average adjusted gross farm income is the income from activities related to farming, ranching, or forestry)
Also Read:- Pandemic Assistance Revenue Program (PARP) Explained!
Payments for specialty crops up to 125,000 US Dollars can be received by a person or legal entity. The maximum payment that could be received for other crops is also up to 125,000 US Dollars.
This would be a combination of Phase 1 and Phase 2 ERP. The applicant’s average adjusted gross (AGI) farm income for the program year has to be under 75 percent of their average AGI for the three taxable years preceding the most immediately preceding complete tax year
The relevant tax years for establishing a producer’s percentage and AGI from ranching, farming, or forestry-related activities are:
- For the program year 2020 – tax years 2016, 2017, and 2018
- For the program year 2021 – tax years 2017, 2018, and 2019
- For the program year 2022 – tax years 2018, 2019, and 2020.
In ERP Phase 2,
- Payments received under ERP Phase 1 and Phase 2 applied For Program Year 2020 would be the combination of Phase 1 ERP of 2020 and Phase 2 ERP of 2020.
- Payments received under ERP Phase 1 and Phase 2 applied For Program Year 2021 would be the combination of Phase 1 ERP of 2021, Phase 2 ERP of 2021, and Phase 1 ERP of 2022.
Who To Call For More Information On ERP Phase 2?
For more details visit: farmers.gov
The Disaster Assistance Discovery Tool, Farm Loan Discovery Tool, and Disaster-at-a-Glance fact sheet. Producers and applicants can call their local USDA service center for FSA and Natural Resources Conservation programs.
Producers and applicants can call their crop insurance agent for assistance related to crop insurance claims.
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