What is the Employee Retention Credit?

Simply put, the Employee Retention credit (ERC), is exactly what it sounds. It rewards business owners for keeping employees on payroll during the pandemic. Washington decision-makers are closely involved in this national effort to help the U.S. recover from the pandemic and come back stronger than ever before.

5 Things to Know about the ERC

To help you cut through the noise, we’re debunking the most common misunderstandings currently circulating in the ERC world. You should know that:

Not every business qualifies for ERC

You likely can’t claim $26k for every employee

Not every COVID impact qualifies a business

Not every government guideline qualifies a business

How much ERC can you claim if you claim PPP?

How to Qualify

Even if you have already reviewed the ERC, we recommend that you take a second look with one our specialists. The program is still not living up to its potential. Many business owners are disqualifying themselves prematurely due to misinformation about who qualifies and who doesn’t.

Businesses should focus on the overall theme of how the coronavirus virus pandemic affected our economy. This means that even if your company grew during the pandemic, you need to consider other factors before disqualifying yourself.

This payroll tax credit is available to essential and non-essential businesses in any industry that endured the effects of the pandemic. Government orders–on federal, state, and local levels–are a major factor that many business owners had to adapt to over the last year and a half. One example of a affected business is a restaurant that couldn’t allow customers to eat indoors, or a manufacturer who had to slow down their operations because of new safety and health regulations.

Here are some impacts to consider that help you determine your business’s eligibility for the ERC:

Full shutdowns;

Partial shut downs

Operation interruptions

Supply chain disruptions

Inability to access equipment

Limited capacity to operate;

Inability to communicate with vendors

Reduction in services or goods offered to your customers;

Cut down on your hours of operation; and

Shifting hours can improve sanitation in your facility

To read more about erc income see our new webpage