Three Simple Steps

The ERTC (Employee retention tax credit) is a refundable payroll tax credit designed to help businesses impacted by COVID-19, retain their employees. It was signed into law on March 27, 2020, as part of the CARES Act. The bill was significantly expanded in 2021.

Eligible businesses can receive up to $7,000 per employee per quarter for 2021. Yes, that's up to $28,000 per employee for the year! For 2020, eligible businesses can receive up to $5,000 per employee.

You can be eligible if you meet either one of two requirements: 1. Your company experienced a reduction in gross receipts. 2. You were subject to a government ordered mandate which forced your business to reduce operations.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (also known as the CARES Act) was signed into law on March 27, 2020. It included two programs to assist businesses with keeping workers employed: the Payroll Protection Program (PPP) administered by the Small Business Adminstration and Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC) administered by the Internal Revenue Service.

PPP funds are distributed based on 2.5 months of payroll and a minimum of 80% of the funds must be used on payroll to be eligible for forgiveness. Additionally, PPP funds are not taxable as revenue and you may still take deductions for the payroll covered by PPP.

ERTC tax credits, however, are credits (or refunds) for a percentage of payroll in each quarter that you qualify. There are specific rules for determining eligibility by quarter, and limiting the dollars that can be claimed for each employee.

Initially with the CARES Act, employers could choose to apply for PPP or claim ERTC credits, but not both.

PPP was more beneficial than ERTC for most businesses (for reasons we won’t go into here) and so most businesses with under 500 employees received forgivable PPP Loans.

On March 11, 2021, The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 was signed into law and included many modifications and expansions to existing elements of previous stimulus programs.

Noteworthy modifications for business owners included:

Businesses who applied for and received PPP funds could now also claim ERTC credits.
ERTC credits could be retroactively claimed for businesses that qualified in 2020.
ERTC credits were extended through 9/30/21 with lower qualification requirements.
The per-employee cap on qualifying wages increased from $10,000 for all of 2020 to $10,000 per quarter for the first 3 quarters of 2021.
The refundable credit amount increased from 50% of qualifying wages in 2020 to 70% in 2021.
So the short answer is “Yes” . . . you can claim ERTC even if you received PPP funds.

You are most likely referring to a provision of the CARES Act that allowed employers to defer the deposit and payment of the employer’s share of Social Security taxes. Those deferrals must then be repaid – with at least 50% of the balance due by 12/31/21 and the remaining balance due by 12/31/22.

ERTC credits are NOT a deferral. They are dollar-for-dollar credits against wages you’ve paid. Not taxes you’ve paid, but actual wages.

These credits can offset future tax contributions or you can receive a refund check – it’s your choice.

And you will NOT have to re-pay these funds (unless, of course, you don’t provide adequate documentation in the course of an audit).

Your banker, CPA, or Financialk Advisor was probably very helpful when it came to getting your PPP funds because they were effectively signing you to an SBA-guaranteed loan. The SBA paid the bank administrative fees based on the PPP loans they made, and so they were incentivized to educate you about the program and get all your paperwork in order.

Compared to the ERTC, the PPP program was also a rather simple calculation. 2 ½ times your average monthly payroll including health insurance and state unemployment taxes.

From the conversations we’ve had with bankers, they have no interest in involving themselves in your employment tax compliance. For them it is a liability and beyond their scope of services.

Your Payroll Service does an excellent job of executing the fundamentals of paying your employees, paying your employment taxes and filing your quarterly reports.

But computing your ERTC credits requires visibility into your P&L and PPP forgiveness applications. Not only that, but the complex requirements around eligibility and allocating ERTC credits at the employee-level while accounting for annual and quarterly qualifying wage gaps and . . . well, you can probably tell why Payroll Services are not offering to do all of this for you.

The Payroll Services that we’ve worked with so far are happy to provide the payroll registers that we need to perform the allocations. And they are happy to file the Amended Form 941-X with the IRS on our client’s behalf.

But that’s the extent of it.

In fact, most wise Payroll Services are asking clients to sign an indemnification waiver before submitting a Form 941-X because the Payroll Service can take no responsibility for the accuracy of the ERTC credits you are claiming.

For them to involve themselves in the intricacies of this calculation, it is a liability and beyond their scope of services.