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What's ERC?
The Employee Retention Tax Credit was introduce with the Cares ACT in 2020
ERC Questionnaire
What is
The Employee Retention Tax Credit?
COVID-19 has been a challenge for all of us. As the world shut down the economy came to a halt, leaving the future of many businesses in a precarious position. As we begin to find normalcy again, businesses now have to focus on recovering and fortunately, several government programs are easing this process.
One such program is the Employee Retention Credit or ERC, which is a generous stimulus program designed to bolster those businesses that were able to retain their employees during this challenging time. Due to the extremely complex tax code and qualifications, it is severely underutilized. Details of the program include:
FAQ
No. This is not a loan. It’s a refundable tax credit. When we file your ERC claim we request a refund check for you.
This is not a lending program – tax refunds are issued by the US Treasury. Therefore, all eligible employers will receive the funds.
Yes! There are two possible qualifications for 2020: revenue reduction, or a “full or partial shutdown of your business due to COVID-19”. Specifically the IRS describes this as “A government authority required partial or full shutdown of your business during 2020 or 2021. This includes your operations being limited by commerce, inability to travel or restrictions of group meetings.” Below are several examples of qualifying events:
Example 1: A restaurant must close or limit its on-site dining. Such as having to close down every other table, due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Example 2: A business that needs to meet with clients in person and has to cancel meetings due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Example 3: A business has to reduce their operating hours because COVID-19 restrictions and cleaning requirements.
Example 4: A business had delayed production timelines caused by supply chain disruptions.
Example 5: A business with a planned event has to cancel that event, or restrict the amount of people who can attend due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Yes. The Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2020, enacted December 27, 2020, modified the ERC credit rules. One of the modifications included allowing a company to have a PPP loan and still take advantage of the ERC credit. However, you can’t use the same dollar for dollar funds. We take this into account when processing your ERC credit.
The ERC credit is not considered income for federal income tax purposes, but you must reduce any deductible wage expenses by the amount of the credit. Please provide the credit information to your CPA for tax purposes.
No, if you are majority owner (over 50%) of your company then your wages do not qualify.
Maybe. Wages of owners who have majority ownership, defined as over 50%, do not qualify, nor do the W2 wages of any immediate family members of the owner. In the case an owner has less than 50% ownership, their W2 wages qualify, as do the W2 wages paid to immediate family members.
The challenge is the ERC credit is taken on your payroll returns and not through your business income tax returns, which is what most CPA’s handle. Because of this most CPA’s don’t process this credit, unless they process your payroll in house. This is also a big reason why this credit is so underutilized. Since CPA’s don’t typically handle it and they are the tax experts, it has mostly fallen in a middle ground where few are able to effectively process the credit. Interestingly, we receive a large portion of our clients from CPA’s.
We have decades of payroll experience, which has allowed us to specifically focus to understanding and maximizing the ERC program. In our experience we have found that due to the complexity (the ERC tax code is over 200 pages) and time investment necessary to understand the ERC program, very few are able to effectively maximize this sizeable credit for your business.
TOP Notch ERC, LLC DOES NOT provide any legal or accounting advice, and users of this website should consult with their own lawyer and C.P.A. for legal and accounting advice.
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