§ 473. Eligibility criteria. 1. To be eligible for a tax credit under
the restaurant return-to-work tax credit program, a business entity
must:

(a) be a small business as defined in section one hundred thirty-one
of this chapter and have fewer than one hundred full-time job
equivalents in New York state as of April first, two thousand
twenty-one;

(b) operate a business location in New York state that is primarily
organized to accept payment for meals and/or beverages including from
in-person customers;

(c) operate predominantly in the COVID-19 impacted food services
sector; provided, however, that the department, in its regulations
promulgated pursuant to this article, shall have the authority to list
certain types of establishments as ineligible;

(d) have experienced economic harm as a result of the COVID-19
emergency as evidenced by a year-to-year decrease of at least forty
percent in New York state between the second quarter of two thousand
nineteen and the second quarter of two thousand twenty or the third
quarter of two thousand nineteen and the third quarter of two thousand
twenty for one or both of: (i) gross receipts or (ii) average full-time
employment; and

(e) have demonstrated a net employee increase.

2. A business entity must be in substantial compliance with any public
health or other emergency orders or regulations related to the entity's
sector or other laws and regulations as determined by the commissioner.
In addition, a business entity may not owe past due state taxes or local
property taxes unless the business entity is making payments and
complying with an approved binding payment agreement entered into with
the taxing authority.