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Over 1,000 small businesses apply for Seminole County CARES funding, officials say

Updated  August 20, 2020 2:40pm EDT
Coronavirus
FOX 35 Orlando
article

Photo by Liu Jie/Xinhua via Getty) (Xinhua/Liu Jie via Getty Images

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. - Over a thousand businesses have applied for CARES funding after Seminole County officials opened the application portal for small business grants on Wednesday.

Seminole County is allocating $10 million in federal CARES funding to support small businesses. Funding is available on a first-come, first-served basis. 

Home-based, mobile, and commercially-zoned businesses can qualify for up to $5,000. Commercially-zoned businesses with two to 25 employees may be eligible for up to $10,000. Those with 26 to 50 employees may receive up to $15,000.

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The application portal opened at 10 a.m. on Wednesday and county officials said that more than 2,370 businesses have accessed the portal as of Thursday morning. Of those, 1,041 have submitted completed applications while another 1,332 have saved their application and are still working on it.

Applications who have submitted a completed application should check that they have received a confirmation email. If it cannot be found in their inbox or spam box, please report the issue to the Seminole CARES Small Business Support line at 877-298-3539.

County officials said that business owners can check the status of their application by logging into the portal and clicking 'Manage Existing Applications.' Applicants with a partially completed submission can continue where they left off through the “Qualifying Criteria" section.

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Businesses applying need the following: 

  • Signed W-9
  • Florida Identification
  • Proof of Economic Impact Due to COVID-19.
  • Quarterly Form 941 (payroll taxes) from both January – March 2020 and April – June 2020.
  • Proof of Employee Count, like a 2019 Form W-3 (W-2 summary) or a Form 941 (payroll taxes) from January – March 2020,
  • Seminole County 2019 Business Tax Receipt

For more information, visit the Seminole County website.