Impact of COVID-19 on your Health and Taxes

The World Zoroastrian Chamber of Commerce – Houston Chapter conducted a very successful webinar on April 10 on the “Impact of COVID-19 on your Health and Taxes”. The session was attended by over 75 people and the attendees greatly appreciated the very timely discussion on the impacts of this pandemic to our daily lives.

Mitra Khumbatta, CPA and Kershaw Khumbatta, CPA started the session by presenting highlights about the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Securities (CARES) Act and how they impact individuals and businesses. Details were provided about stimulus checks for individuals and how the amounts could vary based on income, and benefits available from the Texas Workforce Commission for unemployed or furloughed individuals. Next, the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Assistance Program provided by the US Small Business Administration were discussed. The participants found these highlights to be very beneficial as there are many aspects to the stimulus package that apply in varying ways.  

The second part of the webinar was presented by Dr. Sorab Italia and he provided facts about COVID-19 and addressed the many fallacies that are being circulated on social media. He discussed the common symptoms of the virus (with fever being a very common symptom), where to get tested for the virus, the timings of test results depending on where you get tested, the different strains of the virus that have occurred in the past, how patients with the virus are presently being treated, the protective masks and gloves that could be worn, the typical age and personal health of the persons that are severely affected by the virus, the anticipated timing of the virus peaking in the Houston area, and the benefits of getting the flu vaccine even though that will not help with this virus. He also stated a vaccine will be the eventual answer to battle this virus, but it will probably not be available for another year. In addition, Dr. Italia also dispelled rumors about the many home remedies that can supposedly fight the virus.  

An extensive Q&A session was conducted after the speaker presentations and the meeting participants asked dozens of questions about COVID-19’s health and tax implications. It was evident by the significant number of questions and deep interaction that this webinar was extremely well received by our community.