941 Instructions for Employee Retention Credit | Employee Retention Credit 2021 Qualifying Wages

Some ERTC Statistics

60%

Businesses surveyed in a Bredin Snap Poll said they were not aware of ERTC.

$87,000

Average ERTC refund amount per customer

$5,000/$7,000

In 2020, an eligible business could claim up to $5,000 per employee annually for ERTC. In 2021, businesses could claim up to $7,000 per employee per quarter, through Sept 30, 2021 (three Quarters)

Combined that would be $26,000 per employee, if your business qualifies for all quarters

“The IRS anticipates 70-80% of businesses are good candidates for taking the Employee Retention Credit.” - Forbes

According to a study done by the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB), the Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC) is an opportunity that is unfamiliar and appears to be severely underused by many small business owners. According to NFIB's research:

Only 4% of small business owners said they are very familiar with the program. Another 32% said they are somewhat familiar.
About 8% of owners utilized the ERTC in 2020.
About 10% of owners plan to take advantage of the tax credit in Q1 and Q2 of 2021.
Nearly half (47%) of owners report that they might take advantage of the tax credit in 2021.

Too often, business owners, churches, and non-profits are:

Not aware of the Employee Retention Credit (ERC) and its benefits.
Believe that their business is not eligible for the ERC.
Not sure how to calculate the credit.
Not familiar with the documentation and record-keeping requirements for the ERC.
Concerned about the additional paperwork and compliance requirements.
Worried about potential audits or penalties.
Feels that the process of filing for the ERC is too complex or time-consuming.
Unsure of how the ERC credit will impact their overall taxes and financial situation.
Worried that they missed the deadline to file for the ERC.
Not aware of the potential impact of the ERC on their employees.
Were told in the past they did not qualify.
Think it is a loan and has to be repaid (it is a refund).

Qualifying under gross receipts in any calendar quarter qualifies the business to recover expenses for six months.

Taking a PPP Loan is no longer a limiting factor!

What the Employee Retention Credit is NOT!

It is NOT a Grant
It is NOT a Loan
There's NO INTEREST to Pay for an ERC Credit
There's are NO RESTRICTIONS on the use of the ERC Funds

What the Employee Retention Credit IS!

It is a TAX REFUND for Small Businesses
It is YOUR MONEY Already Paid in Previous Payroll Taxes
ERC Credit/Funds are UNLIMITED
You have up to 3 Year to Claim the ERC Credit
It's Based on Eligibility per Quarter, per Employee and MUST BE Calculated Accurately
IT'S EXTREMELY COMPLICATED

WHAT IS ERC (EMPLOYEE RETENTION CREDIT)?

The Employee Retention Credit (ERC) is a payroll tax refund of up to $26,000 per employee. It was designed by the United States Treasury Department to help businesses that kept employees on payroll during the pandemic.

WHO QUALIFIES FOR AN ERC REFUND (EMPLOYEE RETENTION CREDIT REFUND)?

Any company (including tax-exempt and charities) that had 1 to 500 employees, and were in business in 2020 and/or 2021 that either:

Employers with more than 500 full-time employees can apply the ERC towards qualified wages paid to employees who were not working during a quarter because the business suspended operations or had a significant decline in gross receipts.

1) Had a Full or Partial Suspension of Operations (FPSO). Had operations that were impacted due to COVID-19 resulting in limitations of commerce travel or group meetings (for commercial, social, religious, or other purposes), AND/OR

2) Had Revenue Decline as a Result of COVID. Experience a significant decline in sales during any calendar from Q1 2020 through Q3 2021, AND/OR

3) Recovery Startup Program. Companies founded after February 15th, 2020 are called “Recovery Startup Businesses’’ in the context of employee retention tax credits.

We have found, about 95% of the clients that we have worked through OUR PROCESS qualify for ERC under one or a combination of the above programs.

Check out this interactive video

Deadline for 2020 ERC: April 15, 2024

Deadline for 2021 ERC: April 15, 2025

WHY LEGACY TAX & RESOLUTION SERVICES?

Dedicated To ERC

No need to be the guinea pig for your CPA or other tax professional. We average 10-20% more funding than a CPA or other tax professional, not familiar with the nuances of the ERC program.

ERC Program Specialists

Our team ERC Department strictly focuses on ERC, allowing us to be the experts and resulting in more funding for your business. This includes the supporting calculations and documentation required to be submitted with each application to the IRS. See below what makes our application package different.

Audit Protection Included

If you get audited, we will supply all criteria and assist in responding to the IRS.

Lightning Fast Results

Our proprietary process allows for faster results, which means faster funding. We have perfected the communication process with our stakeholders to work a case from initial submission through application submission with the IRS.

Maximum Funding

We evaluate your claim in every way possible to ensure we maximize your credit.

Professional Support

Although our process is quick and painless, we have answers with a dedicated team of ERC support specialists when you have questions.

What Your Business Can Expect, Using Our Services to Process Your ERC Application

Because of the aggressive and inaccurate claims made by "ERC Mills," the IRS has issued several warnings about ensuring that your ERC credits can be verified. The IRS demands detailed documentation and proof of compliance, including tax aggregation and attribution rules. Businesses and organizations must know the issues and take the necessary precautions to ensure their ERC claims are valid.

The ERC guidelines created by the IRS are over 200 pages long and have changed many times. Many companies do not qualify under only Revenue Reduction and, therefore, must qualify exclusively under Governmental Full or Partial Shutdown Orders or a combination of both. There are over 14,000 mandates nationwide, and we take the time to work with your company and industry to apply the various mandate codes. Improper and lack of proper application of the qualification criteria will likely lead to an IRS audit. We use the common mandates on all of our pre-audited applications. Our CPAs specialize in the ERC and can help our clients receive 15-25% more money than other firms.

With so much on the line, attempting to complete a fully supported application on your own can be overwhelming. That's where Legacy Tax & Resolution Services comes in. Our experts help you navigate the complex world of Employee Retention Tax Credits and deliver audit-ready reports that will give you confidence in your Employee Retention Credit Application. Regarding the ERC Application Package submitted to the IRS, we believe in providing a package that will make the job of reviewing your case and reaching an approval decision by the IRS Agent fast and efficient. By providing an audit-ready ERC application, we accomplish three objects, 1) Because your application has been pre-audited, the application is ready for a quicker approval by the IRS reviewer 2) Your chances of being selected for a post-approval audit is considerably reduced because of our pre-audit process, 3) While no company can completely prevent a random audit, should you be selected, you know that your company is ready.

Below is what we provide

Audit Ready Report with Submission – Our Research Team builds a solid qualification case for every client. They create timelines and arguments to prove your qualifications for the ERC. Our audit-ready reports include all of the memos, write-ups, qualification summaries, and employee support necessary to assist the IRS agent in verifying your ERC claim and sustaining your claim in the event of an audit.
Small or Large Employer (in 2019) – Determine if the employee is considered a small or large employer in 2019 based on the Aggregation Rules. This is important to determine qualifying employees.
Large Employer - Qualifying Employees – In the case of a large eligible employer, work records and documentation showing that wages were paid for time only when an employee was not providing services.
Qualification Criteria – Exactly how the business qualifies (revenue reduction, governmental orders, Startup Recovery Business, or combination) laid out in considerable detail As if we were preparing for an audit.
How Statutory Requirements Were Addressed – Taking into consideration Tax Aggregation and Attribution rules
Qualified Wage Details – Break down payroll information by employee per quarter, including eliminating any majority owners and those related to the majority owner by Attribution Rules. Take into consideration the employer size test and the allowable qualifying wages.
Health Insurance Expenses – Documentation supporting the amount of allocated qualified health plan expenses included in qualifying wages considering the changing periods of coverage and maximum credit amount by year and quarter.
Verification ERC Not Previously Taken Through Form 7200 – Verification that ERTC was not previously taken in prior years under the once discontinued credit claiming process using Form 7200.
PPP Details (If Applicable) – Details showing wages paid using PPP funds and how the wages paid through PPP were attributed to ERC-qualifying wages.
Other Tax Credits (If Applicable) – Details showing wages paid using other credit programs such as WOTC, R&D, FFCRA, RRF, IEC, CEDWP, EZEC, and SVOG and how the wages paid through these credit programs were allocated to ERC-qualified wages based on the varying rules that apply to each type of credit.
Government Orders – Analysis of location-specific Government Orders that negatively impacted your business during COVID-19 to ensure they will stand up to IRS scrutiny.
Nominal Impact – Analysis of the employer's records relied upon to determine whether more than a nominal portion (>10%) of its operations were impacted by governmental orders.
Narrative- We provide a narrative of the nature of the business and how COVID negatively impacted it.

Preparation of signature-ready amended Form 941-Xs for all qualifying quarters. Accurate and supportable numbers allow you to claim the tax credits you are eligible for confidently.

Monitoring of the progress with the IRS. Using Form 8821- Tax Information Authorization, we will monitor your case from application acceptance, assignment to an IRS agent, request for additional information, application approval, and refund issuance.

How complicated is the ERC?

The ERC Tax Credit program was first introduced starting with the passage of the CARES Act in March 2020.

In total, Congress has passed four Acts into law that affect the Employee Retention Credit.

Additional changes were added or subtracted from the ERC over the last three Acts that were passed into law.

Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act)

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) has a total of 335 pages.

Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA)

The Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) has a total of 2126 pages.

American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)

The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) has a total of 243 pages.

Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA)

And finally, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) has a total of 1039 pages.

Wow this is way to complicated for me to try on my own

This interactive video lays it out for you

Continued IRS Changes to the Employee Retention Credit Program

Besides the additional Acts that Congress has passed into law, the IRS has also made major changes to the ERC rules and regulations over the past almost 3 years.

Five key IRS ERC updates have been made…

IRS Notice 2021-20, ERC Guidance

IRS Notice 2021-20 has 106 pages providing Employee Retention Tax Credit guidance. Guidance on the Employee Retention Credit under Section 2301 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.

IRS Notice 2021-23, ERC Guidance

IRS Notice 2021-23 has 17 pages providing more ERC Credit guidance. Guidance on the Employee Retention Credit under the CARES Act for the First and Second Calendar Quarters of 2021.

IRS Revenue Procedure 2021-33, ERC Miscellaneous

IRS Notice 2021-33 has 12 pages of miscellaneous updates on the ERC Credit. 26 CFR 601.105 Examination of returns and claims for refund, credit or abatement; determination of correct tax liability. Also Part I, § 3134; § 2301 of Public Law 116-136.

IRS Notice 2021-49, ERC Guidance

IRS Notice 2021-49 has 34 pages detailing even more Employee Retention Credit guidance. Guidance on the Employee Retention Credit under Section 3134 of the Code and on Miscellaneous Issues Related to the Employee Retention Credit.

IRS Notice 2021-65, ERC Miscellaneous

IRS Notice 2021-65 has 10 pages of miscellaneous updates on the ERTC program. Termination of the Employee Retention Credit under Section 3134 of the Code in the Fourth Calendar Quarter of 2021 for Certain Employers.

Employee Retention Credit ERC Rules and Regulations = 3,922 Pages to Navigate

When you add up the four Acts from Congress (3,743 pages) that contain information affecting the Employee Retention Credit Program, and the five guidance updates from the IRS (179 pages), that’s over 3,900+ pages of ERC rules and regulations to read through and decipher.

We’ve Cut Through the ERC Tax Credit Confusion for You

If you tried researching the Employee Retention Credit program, or even tried to do this yourself you are fully aware of the confusions and complexities.

Much of the ERC information found on page 1 of Google may already be outdated by the time you read it.

Yeah, This is way too complicated to try on my own!

Check out this interactive video and let get started

WOW! Still not convinced you should not try this on your own. Well then, let's try to get you prepared as MUCH AS POSSIBLE!

Quick ERC/ERTC Checklist

Did you document the decline in Gross Receipts/Revenue by quarter correctly? Ensure you’ve accounted for non-operating income and investment income. Determine first if aggregation is required, per a control group scenario. Remember not to include unrealized gains and losses or PPP loan proceeds. Last, be sure you can tie the ERC reported revenue back to financial statements and/or tax reporting documents.
Did you take part in other federal grant programs (including PPP loans)? Wages and health care expenses may not be used for the ERC if they are used for PPP loan forgiveness, or other tax credits and grants. Complicated guidance has been issued (Notice 2021-20). Incorrectly submitting the PPP forgiveness application may lead to the inadvertent exclusion of ERC eligible wages.
Did you take an advance ERC in Q4 of 2021? Employers who took an advance ERC before the program had been officially terminated will have to pay that money to the IRS by the end of Q4 2022 or face penalties and interest.
Have you carefully documented local/state shutdown “orders”? These orders will be local and state orders, not federal “guidance,” nor will this apply to choices made by management to curtail operations in the interest of safety. Orders that disrupted businesses are those that made conducting business unlawful and impossible. A business that is “essential” will have more difficulty qualifying.
Do you utilize a payroll company or payroll technology? While the ERC was originally intended to provide immediate cash relief, refunds are taking many months to reach taxpayers. Organizations using a PEO will likely find that their credits are further complicated by the reporting requirements for filers who operate under co-
employment agreements.
Additionally, payroll platforms may offer to process this credit, but their “opt in” programs have small print leaving the eligibility determination to the taxpayer and advising them to consult experts. Further, payroll processors do not have access to all the information required. Most importantly, the ERC documentation they often provide is inadequate, leaving the taxpayer vulnerable to an audit.
Are you a part of a larger controlled group? Determining Control Group status is complicated and should be done first, by experts. If there are related entities, via common ownership or control, all the entities in that group must be assessed as one common employer; each entity does not qualify alone. This is different from the PPP qualification process.
Did you correctly report ERC wages? ERC wages are not deductible for federal income tax purposes in the year of payment and should be recorded and reported in the quarter to which the credit applies. For cash basis taxpayers, this is an unwelcome surprise. Improper claims, or late reporting, could result in interest and penalties. Also, many times, owner wages must be excluded from the calculations.
Did you review and account for (or not) owner and owner’s family payroll? You may not be allowed to include owner wages, or employees who are related to the owner.
Did you file the correct version of form 941X? Form 941X has been reissued multiple times. Taxpayers must use the correct version, or they’ll be rejected.
Have you considered all reporting requirements, even before credits are received? Most of these credits are material and should be reported on tax returns and financial statements well before the credits have been received.

Pointers and Pitfalls

The following will help clarify or avoid pitfalls within the ERC regulations.

ERC legislation allows an employer to take an ERC on the healthcare costs for a furloughed employee, even if they are not collecting wages.
There is complexity in defining “partial” business, or commercial, interruption.
Be careful. There’s room for interpretive trouble when it comes to counting full-time workers. The legislation refers to full-time staff and points to prior language indicating that full-time employees are those who worked 30 hours a week or more on average in 2019.
Zooming or other telecommuting can rule out qualifying wages. If everyone goes home and promptly telecommutes, even if there’s a government stay-at-home order, the business has not been disrupted.
The CAA eliminated, at least for now, the requirement that eligible wages for an employee not be higher than they were in a prior quarter.
Owner wages, and any owner family wages, may have to be excluded in calculating eligible wages.
The ERC program was eliminated for the 4th quarter of 2021 to help fund infrastructure legislation.

DID COVID IMPACT YOUR BUSINESS AS A RESULT OF?

Partial/Full Shutdowns
Limitations of group meetings
Supply chain interruptions
Inability to find or retain employees
Increase in cost of wages/goods
Reduction in goods or services
Interruption to operations
Inability to travel or attend conventions
Cut down in your hours of operations
Started new business after February 15th, 2020

If you had any of these issue, you owe it to yourself and your business to find out if you qualify.

How You May be Eligible for the ERC Even Without a Decline in Revenue.

No Signiﬁcant Decline in Gross Receipts?

You can still qualify. The “full or partial suspension of operations” (or “FPSO”) test is not a ﬁnancial statement test. Therefore, a business is not required to have any decline in gross receipts to evidence the existence of a FPSO. Congress created this test recognizing that: (1) gross receipts do not always tell the full picture of a business’ COVID hardship; and (2) even proﬁtable businesses may have had to make tough employee retention decisions due to COVID-19-related changes to their business. For example, a company may be successful in one line of business and not another, causing total revenue to increase while certain business lines suﬀer or diminish. The ERC was designed to encourage the retention of employees in both proﬁtable and non-proﬁtable businesses.

Deemed an Essential Business?

No problem. The Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) explicitly states that an essential business may be eligible under the FPSO test. The FPSO test looks for a full or partial suspension of business operations. Hence, a full closure or shutdown is not required.

Not Materially Impacted by Government Orders?

That’s OK. The IRS carefully chose the words “more than nominal” to identify a situation where operational modiﬁcations and restrictions could result in a FPSO. The IRS did not use “substantial,” “material,” or other similar thresholds which may have suggested that a major impact be identiﬁed. Therefore, operational disruptions that are slightly more
than inconsequential may substantiate ERC eligibility.

Segmentation to Qualify!

To further complicate the matter, the IRS allows employers considering the ERC to ﬁrst break their business into diﬀerent “segments” (...think locations, divisions, services lines, business units, etc.) and then asks whether any segment of the business experienced a FPSO. If one of the company’s “segments” experienced a FPSO, a FPSO is deemed to have existed for the entire business, so long as such segment accounted for more than 10% of the revenue or service hours of the entire business in 2019.

One of the most important things to remember is that it is generally never just one operational modiﬁcation or restriction that is used to support a FPSO; oftentimes, it’s the accumulation of several diﬀerent operational restrictions or adjustments which, on their face, might seem inconsequential but in the aggregate constitute a FPSO.

You will kick yourself if you miss out

Employee Retention Credit (ERC) Spotlight:

1. Reduction In Revenue

The ERC allows qualified employers to recover wages and health plan expenses incurred during COVID-19.

• For 2020 periods, businesses can recover 50% of qualified costs, up to $5,000 per employee
• For 2021 periods, businesses can recover 70% of qualified costs, up to $7,000 per employee, per quarter for the first three quarters.

Employers are eligible to claim up to:

$26,000 per employee

Many taxpayers do not realize that Congress passed legislation at the end of 2020 allowing taxpayers to claim the ERC even if they took the PPP loan. This was not previously permitted.

With over 100 pages of ERC statute and regulation, and the credit now in its third iteration, the ERC can present challenges. Legacy Tax & Resolution Services will help you navigate this incentive for both future quarters and retroactively.

2. Impacted by Government Orders (include supplier chain disruptions)

If a governmental order had more than a nominal impact on your business operations, such as:

Fully or partially suspension of operations tied to governmental orders
Inability to obtain critical goods or materials from supplies because they were required to suspend operations due to governmental orders
Limiting occupancy to provide for social distancing due to governmental orders
Governmental orders to shelter in place preventing employees from going to work.

3. Recovery Startup Program

Companies founded after February 15th, 2020, are likely eligible for a special form of employee retention tax credits (ERC or ERTC’s). These businesses are called “Recovery Startup Businesses’’ in the context of employee retention tax credits.

Now that’s a mouthful, but it’s actually really important for your startup, especially if your company was incorporated or founded after February 15th, 2020. The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, acknowledges that starting a company during COVID was difficult, and this attempts to help those companies with their cash flow. Specially, the government will give “recovery startups” tax credits to help them hire by making hiring new people cheaper.

Qualification tests for recovery startups and employee retention tax credits

There are a couple tests to make sure that your startup is eligible as a recovery startup for these ERC.

The first one was the business started on or after February 15th, 2020. Basically when COVID hit the United States.
The second one is the company must have had an average of $1 million or less in gross receipts every year.

If your company was started in 2020 and you are filing for this in 2021, you’re basically just looking at the 2020 year. Did your company do less than a million dollars in gross receipts / revenue in 2020?

How much can a recovery startup get with the ERC?

So the good news here is your startup can save basically $7,000 per employee on a tax credit, assuming they pay at least $10,000 or more to that employee in the eligible time periods.

It’s capped at $50,000 per quarter. So $50,000 in Q3,2021 $50,000 in Q4, 2021.

How To Qualify for ERTC?

Legacy Tax & Resolution Services (LTRS) Founder, Stephan H. Brewer, CPA, CTRS, JSM Tax, NTPI Fellow provides a brief video overview of the employee retention tax credit and its benefits. LTRS can easily check for its customers whether their business is eligible for ERTC. During the pandemic:

Were operations partially or fully suspended under government orders due to COVID-19?
Did your business experience a decline in percentage of gross receipts?
Are you a Recovery Startup Business that began after Feb. 15, 2020?

Qualified Wages

For quarters in 2020, employers with fewer than 100 employees can receive credits for 50% of wages paid to all employees plus 100% of the cost of employer‐provided health care (subject to per‐employee cap).

For quarters in 2021, employers with fewer than 500 employees can receive credits for 70% of wages paid to all employees, plus 70% of the cost of employer‐provided health care (subject to per‐employee cap).

For both years, employers can’t claim ERTCs for wages that were used in calculating PPP loan forgiveness.

PreAudited For Your Protection

Our process is why we are different from the other ERC processing services. Every single case that we process is "PreAudited." This means we use the same process that an IRS auditor would use to verify your qualifications for the ERC credit. The IRS ERC Processing Unit only has a limited time to work on each case. They do not have the time for an extensive validation process. While that may be good for your business on the front end, it could be a massive disaster if your business is audited in the future and found not to qualify or qualify for a lesser amount. This could lead to huge penalties and perhaps even a referral to the Criminal Investigation Unit. This is why for every client we process, we PreAudit Every Case. If you are working with a process service that does not have this level of service, We believe you may have a potential huge future liability and not even know it. Processing Services that get paid a commission based on the refund size are incentivized to perhaps overlook things or not verify qualification. And if they are not licensed, wow, you are really taking your chances.

How do you know there are going to be a high number of future ERC Audits?

When firms start advertising ERC Audit Representation Services (ourselves included) the writing is on the wall. Get ahead of this by only working with a firm that PreAudits your ERC Application. If your firm did not conduct a PreAudit as part of the application process, consider having us conduct an ERC Risk Assessment. The best time to start preparing for an ERC audit is before you receive any notiication from the IRS. If you suspect that you may have been misled by a bad actor ERC provider into claiming credits you were not eligible for, the best thing you can do is seek a second opinion from a professional regarding your eligibility and have an ERC risk assessment conducted.

Here's How We Can Work Together

Flexible Options in Working With You or Your Team

There are several flexible options to work with you. The most popular is the Done-For-You (DFY), where we handle everything for you from start to finish.

Done-For-You (DFY)

We handle it all, from start to finish – MOST POPULAR OPTION.

Do-It-Yourself (DIY)

Have us review your work. We will analyze to determine where your package is lacking, needs correction, or lacks support. If you have already submitted your application, we will tell you if you have cause for concern.

Done-With-You (DWY)

Let's collaborate.

Consult-With-You

Customize to your exact needs.

Legacy Tax & Resolution Services DONE FOR YOU (DFY) ERTC Service

Legacy Tax & Resolution Services ERTC Service can help businesses retroactively claim the Employee Retention Tax Credit. Your business will receive the following:

A specially trained ERTC expert to review the qualified wages used
A report providing complete documentation of all calculations
Preparation and filing of the respective amended Form 941 returns

For most employers, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act ended the ERTC retroactive to Sept. 30, 2021. Recovery Startup Businesses can pay qualified wages through Dec. 31, 2021, to use to claim the credit.

Businesses have three years from the program's sunset to claim the credit retroactively.

Let's Calculate Your Potential Credit

Here's How We Can Work Together. We break our processes down by the number of employees that you have (1-50 employees and 51- 500+ employees)

Do You Have 1 to 50 Employees?

$0 for the Initial Analysis Fee

To dive in and run the numbers

Analysis Fee Upon Engage

We present your refund amount and quote you a Flat-Fee based on the number of qualifying quarters and the number of employees. We charge a refundable fee of $2,500, applied toward the remaining balance upon receiving your refund.

Balance of Fees Upon Refund

The balance of the fees is due within 7 days of receiving your ERC refund check.

In this case, there is no initial fee or risk to you for us to get started and dive in and run the numbers, even though there is still a lot of work on our end.

We'll have an initial conversation with you and ask specific questions to ensure your business qualifies under the revenue test. Before this initial conversation, you will have been sent an initial survey to assist with your initial qualification conversation.

We'll send you client requests for documents needed to support your application thoroughly. We will also ask that you complete and sign an IRS Form 8821- Tax Information Authorization that will be used to track your case with the IRS.

It should take you about 10 minutes to gather and upload the required documents via our secure portal,

Our Tax Advisors will methodically determine your eligibility quarter-by-quarter for 2020 and 2021,

Then run the payroll calculations employee-by-employee for eligible Qualified Wages.

We will subtract out any PPP loans, R &D Credits, Work Opportunity Tax Credits (WOTC), Families First CoronaVirus Response Act (FFCRA) Credits, Shutter Venue Operators Grant (SVOG), Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF), and other tax benefit programs you may have received from your qualifying wages. Next, we will remove any disqualifying owners and family members from employee-qualified wages, and the final maximum ERC Refund will be determined.

These numbers are checked 3x's by 3 separate Tax Advisors to ensure we have the correct and maximum ERC Refund you qualify for.

Our application packages are by-the-book and per current IRS rules and guidelines. We literally PreAudit every case and provide well-documented support for every application.

At this stage, we review your ERC Refund amount with you; that is where you can decide if you want us to proceed.

We'll quote you a reasonable flat fee amount to finalize everything. Our fee is based on the number of qualifying quarters and the number of qualifying employees.

Most clients say YES at this point because we have already put in a lot of work, and our flat fee to proceed ahead to finalize your ERC Claim is less than what most professional ERC processing firms charge.

Then, we take all the work done up to that point and prepare and fill out the correct amended tax return forms to claim the ERC credit and provide the proper support documentation to support your claim.

These amended returns are called IRS Form 941-Xs, which must be filed for each quarter your business qualifies for. Form 941 is what your company already filed each quarter for payroll, and the 941-X is an amendment to those prior returns.

We will send the final amended Form 941s for your signature and return to our office. Once we receive the signed Form 941-Xs, we will mate these to the supporting package and forward the entire application to the IRS with tracking.

We will use Form 8821- Tax Information Authorization obtained from you as part of our information gathering to track your case with the IRS.

Upon the IRS' completion of the review of your case, your business will receive a check directly from the IRS for your ERC Refund.

The balance of the fees will be due within 7 days of receiving your ERC refund check.

Do You Have 50 to 500+ Employees?

$2,500 fee for the analysis

We charge a refundable fee of $2,500, applied toward the remaining balance upon receiving your refund, to dive in and run the numbers.

Balance of Fees Upon Refund

The balance of the fees is due within 7 days of receiving your refund check.

This is how we engage because there's much more upfront work for companies with more than 50 employees.

The process is the same as listed above, with the only difference being to charge $2,500 to perform the analysis.

We run through the same systematic in-depth process.

To start the analysis, you would be charged an upfront fee of $2,500.

Our Process Steps

Initial Consultation

It all starts with an initial consultation to make sure you qualify for the ERC program.

Checklist

Since we have determined in our initial consultation that you qualify, we will email a simple checklist of documents needed

Upload Documents

It will take you about 10 minutes to gather these documents and upload them to your secure portal. We take security very seriously

Deep-Dive Analysis to Verify Eligibility, Run Calculation and Determine Maximum ERC Refund

Once we get all of the documents, our Tax Advisory Team will analyze every quarter to determine which quarters your business qualifies for.

Then, run the calculations per employee, per pay period, per quarter, and subtract out any PPP loans you may have received, and subtract out any majority owners and family members and family members related to the majority owner(s).

Everything we do is thorough and accurate to help you maximize the total ERC Refund you’re legally allowed by the IRS based on your numbers.

Please Note: This is a very simplified description of the process and workflow. However, there are many complex details, IRS rules and regulations, and unique circumstances that determine your company eligibility and total ERC Refund amount. There are some businesses that may not qualify for the Employee Retention Credit program after going through this deep-dive process.

Quickly Provide a Preliminary Report

We provide you with a quick preliminary report of the opportunities and then dive in to the details

Analyze The Data

Our experts review your business activities ensuring that all credits and incentive requirements are satisfied, and the appropriate opportunities are identified

Document Credits

Our audit ready final report includes the supporting documents necessary to claim and support each credit or incentive requested

Secure the benefits

We provide your company all the necessary forms and instructions necessary to claim the credits and incentive due to your company.

Monitor the Process Until the Check Is In Your Hands

Through an IRS Power of Attorney we will monitor the progress until the check is in your hands

FAQS

See how do Businesses received the credit

Our Employee Retention Tax Credit FAQs

IRS' Employee Retention Tax Credit FAQs

Myths About ERC

Do the Owner's Wages and Those Related to the Owner Qualify For The Employee Retention Credit?