American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)

Q: What is the purpose of American Recovery & Reinvestment Act?
A: To speed economic recovery, create jobs and provided services to those affected by the recession. It also includes rigorous requirements for accountability and transparency.

Q: Where can I learn more about grants available under the Recovery Act?
A: Search Recovery Act grant opportunities on Grants.gov.

Q: How do I report suspected fraud and abuse?
A: Call the Fraud and Abuse Hotline at 1-800-232-5454. Since 1983, the State Comptroller's Department of Audit has provided a toll-free hotline for reporting fraud, waste, and abuse of government funds and property. If you observe activity which you consider to be illegal, improper, or wasteful, please call this toll-free hotline.

Q: Where can I find information about doing business with the state of Tennessee on ARRA projects?
A: Visit the Doing Business with Tennessee Government page of our Web site.

Q: How do I post a job opening resulting from Tennessee ARRA funds on the state job bank?
A: ARRA recipients, sub-recipients and contractors are encouraged to utilize the Department of Labor's job bank to post job openings resulting from ARRA stimulus monies issued to Tennessee. As you post the position, one required field is "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Job?" Select "Yes" to indicate a job opening resulting from the Recovery Act.

Q: How do I contact the Office of TN Recovery Act Management?
A: E-mail us or call (615) 253-8970 or toll-free 877-742-1116.

Q: What provisions of the Recovery Act help small businesses?
A: The IRS Web site describes key highlights of the Recovery Act, including these benefits for small businesses:

Net Operating Loss Carryback - Small businesses with deductions exceeding their income in 2008 can use a new net operating loss tax provision in ARRA to get a refund of taxes paid over the past five years instead of the usual two. have more information on the net operating loss carryback provision. Technical information is contained in Revenue Procedure 2009-19.

Section 179 Deduction - A qualifying taxpayer can choose to treat the cost of certain property, frequently referred to as section 179 property, as an expense and deduct it in the year the property is placed in service instead of depreciating it over several years. Under ARRA, qualifying businesses can continue to expense up to $250,000 of section 179 property for tax years beginning in 2009. Without ARRA, the 2009 expensing limit for section 179 property would have been $133,000.

Reduction of Estimated Tax Payments - Normally, small businesses have to pay 110 percent of their previous year's taxes in estimated taxes. The Recovery Act permits small businesses to reduce their estimated payments to 90 percent of the previous year's taxes.

Extension of Bonus Depreciation Deductions Through 2009 - Bonus depreciation is extended through 2009, allowing businesses to take a larger tax deduction within the first year of a property's purchase.

Capital Gains Tax Break for Investment in Small Business - Investors in small business who hold their investments for five years can exclude from taxation 75 percent of their capital gains.

COBRA: Health Insurance Continuation Subsidy - The IRS has extensive guidance for employers, including an updated Form 941, as well as information for qualifying individuals.

Go to the Recovery Act section of the IRS Web site for more information and links to each of these provisions.

Q: What guidance has been provided by the federal government for Section 1512 reporting?
A: On June 22, 2009, the Office of Management and Budget issued implementing guidance for the reporting requirements included in Section 1512 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Q: Where can I find information on Recovery Act funds awarded to Tennessee and other states?
A: There are two federal Web sites that are good resources for the latest information on Recovery Act fund awards to the states listed below. Tennessee's Office of Recovery Act Management has created a monthly report of Funds Awarded Directly to Tennessee Entities (PDF, 1.74MB) that compiles information from these and other sources. Remember that many of the funds awarded through the Recovery Act that benefit Tennessee are distributed directly to local or other non-state agencies, to not-for-profit organizations, or to federal government agencies with projects in Tennessee.

The federal Web sites you can search for additional information include:

USAspending.gov, which allows users to find spending for contracts, grants, and loans awarded in a particular state. After selecting their reporting criteria, users can narrow the spending for these three categories to only Recovery Act data and can further narrow their search to a list of contractors and grantees awarded funding in the selected state.

Recovery.gov allows users to navigate to information for each state and see the amount of funds announced, funds made available, and funds paid out to each state. This funding information can also be sorted by agency. Users can drill down to view the loans, contracts and grants that have been awarded to a state on the 'investments by recipient' page and can further drill down using a specific award type to find out who the recipients are and all project descriptions under that recipient.

Q: How can I track where the money is going in Tennessee?
A: See how Recovery Act funds are being used in Tennessee.