Colorado Employee Retention Credit Subtraction

COVID-19’s pandemic caused unimaginable hardships to many organizations and businesses around the globe. Many employers faced decreased revenues, increased costs, and disruptions of operations as a result of lockdowns.

To help employers keep their employees, and to provide them with health insurance during these difficult times, the U.S. federal government has created the Employee Retention credit (ERC), an refundable tax credits that can offset some of payroll costs for employers who qualify.

The ERC has been in place since 2020 when the CARES Act was passed. Later, in 2021 and again in 2023, it was modified and extended by new legislation. This article will provide an overview of the ERC and its workings, as well as how to apply for it in different time periods.

For a brief reading of what the Employee Retention Credit or ERC is, take a look at this video from the YouTube channel “ERC Specialists”. You can also continue below to read an in-depth explanation of ERC.

What is the Employee Retention Credit? Colorado Employee Retention Credit Subtraction

The Employee Retention Credit (ERC) is a refundable tax credit for businesses and tax-exempt organizations that had employees and were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The ERC is a refundable tax credit that was created by 2020’s CARES Act and has been extended and changed by subsequent legislations of 2021 and 2023. The ERC’s goal is to encourage employers during a crisis to continue to employ their workers, and to offer them health coverage.

Main Features and Advantages

Credit is a fixed percentage of qualifying wages and health care costs paid by employers to employees.
The credit limit and percentage are dependent on the period of time for which you claim the credit. For 2020 the percentage is set at 50%, while the maximum per employee is set at $5,000. In 2021, 70% of the employees will be eligible for the maximum. The limit per employee is $7,000. For 2023, the percentage is 70% for the first two quarters and 40% for the last two quarters, and the limit is $10,000 per employee per quarter. Colorado Employee Retention Credit Subtraction
The credit is fully refundable, meaning that if the amount of the credit exceeds the employer’s payroll tax liability, the excess will be paid to the employer as a refund.
Employers who have experienced a significant drop in gross receipts or a complete or partial suspension of their operations as a result of a government order relating to COVID-19 can claim the credit. For 2023 only, employers that are classified as recovery startup business can claim the credit.
The credit may be claimed by filing a modified employment tax return (941-X), or by reducing the employment tax deposits to prepare for the credit. Employers can request an advance payment by submitting Form 7200.

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Eligibility Criteria

In order to qualify for Employee Recruitment Credit (ERC), a company must meet the following criteria:

The employer’s business or organization was fully or partially suspended by a government order due to COVID-19 during a calendar quarter in 2020 or 2021
The gross receipts of the employer for a calendar-quarter in 2020 or 2020 were less than 50 percent (for 2020), or 80 percent (for 2021), of their gross receipts during the same calendar quarter in 2019.

In addition, there is a special rule for recovery startup businesses that began operations after February 15, 2020 and have average annual gross receipts of no more than $1 million. These businesses can qualify for the ERC regardless of business suspension or revenue decline.

Business Suspension

A government order will either fully or partially suspend an organization or business if:

The order prohibits travel, group meetings, and commerce due to COVID-19
The order impacts the operations of a business or organization
The order will apply to any calendar month in 2020 or even 2021

Some examples of orders from the government that could cause a business to be suspended are:

Stay-at-home orders that restrict non-essential businesses from operating
Certain businesses are subject to curfews which limit their hours of operation
Limits on the capacity of a business that limit how many customers or clients it can serve
Travel restrictions or travel bans that limit the ability of businesses to transport products or services

To determine if a business was fully or partially suspended by a government order, an employer must consider:

How the nature and scope and the order affect the operation of the business
The duration, frequency of the orders and their alignment with the four quarters calendar.
The impact of an order on revenue and expenses

Revenue Decline

A business or organization is considered to have experienced a significant decline in gross receipts if:

The gross receipts in any calendar quarter of 2020 will be less than 50% the gross receipts in the same quarter of 2019.
The gross receipts from any calendar quarter during 2021 are less than 80% compared to the same quarter’s gross receipts from 2019.

Gross receipts are defined as the total amount received or accrued by a business or organization from all sources during its annual accounting period without any deductions. Gross receipts include the following:

Sales of Goods and Services
Dividends (rents), royalties and interest
Contributions are gifts, donations and grants Colorado Employee Retention Credit Subtraction
Membership fees and dues
Gross profit from business or trade

Employers must use the following formulas to calculate gross receipts and compare them between quarters.

The same method of account (cash, accrual or accrual) was used in filing the federal income tax return.
It will use the same calendar year quarters for 2019/2021 as it did to file its federal Employment Tax Returns (Form 941).
The same sources reported on your federal income tax form for 2019

Recovery Startup Business

A recovery startup business is a business that:

After February 15, 2020, you can start any business or trade.
The average annual gross receipts for the three tax years ending in the year preceding the quarter for which credit is calculated cannot exceed $1 million

Even if it does not meet the criteria for revenue decline or suspension of business, a recovery startup can still qualify. Recovery Startup Businesses are still subject to some restrictions and special rules.

The maximum credit per quarter will be $50,000
The credit is only available for wages paid in the third and fourth quarters of 2021
The credit is subject to an overall cap of $250 million for all recovery startup businesses

> > Click Here to Find Out if You are Eligible for ERC < <

Credit Amount and Calculation

There are different ERC rules and amounts for different employers and periods of time. The ERC’s main influences are:

How much an employer’s company was affected by the pandemic.
How many employees an employer had in 2019, 2020/2021 or whether they worked, or did not work during the pandemic
The amount of money paid by the employer to each employee as well as their health insurance during pandemic

In order to receive the ERC from the IRS, the employer will need to complete some forms. The forms must include the total amount paid by the employer to employees, their health insurance coverage and the reasons why they are eligible for the ERC. The IRS will then check the forms before giving the money to employers. The money can be used by the employer to pay for health insurance, to pay employees, or refunds on payroll taxes.

The ERC will no longer be available. The ERC started in March 2020 and ends in September 2022. The employer is required to claim ERCs before they expire, or are no longer available. The employer must also spend the money properly and not waste any of it. Colorado Employee Retention Credit Subtraction

Here is more information about the ERC and its calculation.

Time Period

The ERC was implemented, amended, or terminated by various laws in 2020. The amount of credit depends on the time frame for which it’s claimed. The following table summarizes the key features and differences of the ERC for each time period:

Time Period	Law	Eligible Employers	Credit Rate	Qualified Wages
2020	CARES Act	Employers with business suspension or revenue decline of more than 50%	50% of qualified wages up to $10,000 per employee per year	Wages paid from March 13 to December 31, 2020
Q1-Q3 2021	CAA and ARPA	Employers with business suspension or revenue decline of more than 20%	70% of qualified wages up to $10,000 per employee per quarter	Wages paid from January 1 to September 30, 2021
Q3-Q4 2021 (Recovery Startup Business)	ARPA	Recovery startup businesses with average annual gross receipts of no more than $1 million,	70% of qualified wages up to $10,000 per employee per quarter (subject to a $50,000 cap per quarter),	Wages paid from July 1 to December 31, 2021,
Q4 2021 – Q3 2022 (Severely Financially Distressed Employer)	ARPA and IIJA	Employers with a revenue decline of more than 90%	70% of qualified wages up to $10,000 per employee per quarter	Wages paid from October 1, 2021, to September 30, 2022

The Number of Employees

The number of eligible employees will affect the calculation and definition of health insurance and qualified wages. An employer is considered a small or large employer depending on the time period and the number of full-time employees (FTEs) it had in 2019. The following table summarizes the thresholds and rules for determining the employer size for each time period:

Time Period	Small Employer Threshold	Large Employer Threshold
2020	Less than or equal to 100 FTEs in 2019	More than 100 FTEs in 2019
Q1-Q2 2021	Less than or equal to 500 FTEs in 2019	More than 500 FTEs in 2019
Q3-Q4 2021	Less than or equal to 500 FTEs in any calendar quarter in either calendar year beginning after December 31, 2019, and ending before July 1, 2021. If an employer did not have in either calendar year beginning after December 31, 2019, and ending before July 1, 2021, the employer is treated as a small eligible employer if it had less than or equal to 500 FTEs in any calendar quarter beginning after June 30, 2021. For recovery startup businesses, the employer size is irrelevant. For severely financially distressed employers, the employer size is irrelevant if the employer had a revenue decline of more than 90%. Otherwise, the same rules as Q1-Q2 2021 apply.	More than 500 FTEs in any calendar quarter in either calendar year beginning after December 31, 2019, and ending before July 1, 2021. If an employer did not exist in either calendar year beginning after December 31, 2019, and ending before July 1, 2021, the employer is treated as a large eligible employer if it had more than 500 FTEs in any calendar quarter beginning after June 30, 2021.

To count FTEs for a given year or quarter, an employer must use the following steps:

Count the number of employees who worked at least 30 hours per week (or at least 130 hours per month) for each month in the year or quarter
Add up the total hours worked by all other employees (who are not counted as FTEs) for each month in the year or quarter
Divide the total hours by120and round down to the nearest whole number
Add the number of FTEs from Step One and Step Three for each month in the year or quarter
Calculate the average number of FTEs by adding up the monthly totals and dividing by 12 (for a year) or 3 (for a quarter)

Qualified Wages and Health Insurance Costs

Qualified Wages are wages that eligible employees receive during periods of suspension or decline in revenue. Qualified wages can include severance payment, bonuses, severance tips, sick pay, family pay and other forms compensation. Qualified wage also includes the cost of health insurance for eligible employees. This may include premiums, deductibles, co-pays, or co-insurance.

The definition and calculation of qualified wages and health insurance costs depend on the employer size and the time period. The following table provides a summary of the rules for different scenarios. Colorado Employee Retention Credit Subtraction

Employer Size	Time Period	Qualified Wages and Health Insurance Costs	Example
Small	2020	All wages and health insurance costs paid to any employee, regardless of whether the employee worked or not	An employer with 80 FTEs in 2019 paid $8,000 in wages and $2,000 in health insurance costs to an employee in 2020. The employer had a revenue decline of more than 50% in Q2 2020. The qualified wages and health insurance costs for Q2 2020 are $10,000.
Small	Q1-Q3 2021	All wages and health insurance costs paid to any employee, regardless of whether the employee worked or not	An employer with 400 FTEs in 2019 paid $12,000 in wages and $3,000 in health insurance costs to an employee in Q1 2021. The employer had a revenue decline of more than 20% in Q1 2021. The qualified wages and health insurance costs for Q1 2021 are $15,000.
Small	Q3-Q4 2021 (Recovery Startup Business)	All wages and health insurance costs paid to any employee, regardless of whether the employee worked or not (subject to a $50,000 cap per quarter)	A recovery startup business that began operations in March 2020 paid $9,000 in wages and $1,000 in health insurance costs to an employee in Q3 2021. The business had average annual gross receipts of $800,000. The qualified wages and health insurance costs for Q3 2021 are $10,000.
Small	Q4 2021 – Q3 2022 (Severely Financially Distressed Employer)	All wages and health insurance costs paid to any employee, regardless of whether the employee worked or not	An employer with 600 FTEs in Q2 2019 paid $11,000 in wages and $4,000 in health insurance costs to an employee in Q4 2021. The employer had a revenue decline of more than 90% in Q4 2021. The qualified wages and health insurance costs for Q4 2021 are $15,000.
Large	2020	Wages and health insurance costs paid to an employee for the time that the employee did not work (up to the amount that the employee would have been paid for working an equivalent duration during the 30 days immediately preceding the period of economic hardship)	An employer with 120 FTEs in 2019 paid $10,000 in wages and $2,000 in health insurance costs to an employee who worked full-time (40 hours per week) in 2020. The employer had a business suspension due to a government order in April 2020. The employee did not work for two weeks in April 2020. The qualified wages and health insurance costs for April 2020 are $2,308 ($10,000 x2/52+$2,000 x2/52).
Large	Q1-Q3 2021	Wages and health insurance costs paid to an employee for the time that the employee did not work (up to the amount that the employee would have been paid for working an equivalent duration during the 90 days immediately preceding the period of economic hardship)	An employer with 550 FTEs in 2019 paid $15,000 in wages and $5,000 in health insurance costs to an employee who worked full-time (40 hours per week) in Q1 2021. The employer had a revenue decline of more than 20% in Q1 2021. The employee did not work for three weeks in Q1 2021. The qualified wages and health insurance costs for Q1 2021 are $5,769 ($15,000 x3/13+$5,000 x3/13).
Large	Q3-Q4 2021 (Severely Financially Distressed Employer)	All wages and health insurance costs paid to any employee, regardless of whether the employee worked or not (only if the employer had a revenue decline of more than 90%. Otherwise, the same rules as Q1-Q32021 apply.)	An employer with 700 FTEs in Q4 2019 paid $12,000 in wages and $6,000 in health insurance costs to an employee who worked full-time (40 hours per week) in Q4 2021. The employer had a revenue decline of more than 90% in Q4 2021. The qualified wages and health insurance costs

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Claim the Credit and Report It

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requires that employers claim the Employee-Retention Credit by filing a federal income tax return, Form 941, or a modified employment tax form (Form941X), with them. The employer must declare the wages and health insurance premiums paid to eligible employees, as well as the credit amount claimed each quarter.

Form 941

Form 941 is a quarterly tax return that the employer must file to show his federal tax liabilities. This includes income taxes, Medicare tax and Social Security taxes. The employer can also claim the ERC in Form 941 for future or current quarters. Form 941 is used by employers to:

ERC reduces the amount that employers must deposit with the IRS in order to pay taxes.
Employers can request a payment in advance if their ERC is higher than the taxes they are required to pay. Colorado Employee Retention Credit Subtraction
Carry over any excess credit into the following quarter

To fill out Form 941 correctly and avoid common errors, the employer should:

Use the latest version 941 which reflects updates and changes in the ERC.
The IRS has provided worksheets to help you calculate the ERC.
Use line 11c to report qualified wages paid and health insurance premiums paid to eligible employees
Use Line 13d to declare the credit amount claimed for each quarter
Line 13f should be used to report any advance payments made by the IRS.
Use Line 24 if you require an advance credit payment.
Use Line 25 to report any excess credit that can be carried forward to subsequent quarters
Sign and date Form 941, and include any supporting documents and schedules.

You can find some helpful tips on how to fill out Form 941 here:

Form 941 can be submitted faster and more securely by using electronic filing (efile) or online services
Visit the IRS website to get the latest updates, FAQs, and guidance regarding Form 941 and ERC.
You can also contact a tax expert or the IRS for clarifications and assistance if you need it.

Form 941-X

Forms 941-X are used to rectify errors or make adjustments to Forms 941 previously submitted. Form 941 X also allows for the employer to claim ERC retroactively. Form 941-X can be used by the employer to: Colorado Employee Retention Credit Subtraction

Claim a refund or credit for overpaid taxes due to claiming the ERC
Report additional qualified earnings and health benefits paid to eligible employee that weren’t reported on Form 941.
The amount of credit claimed will be affected by any mistakes or omissions in Form 941.

To avoid making common errors and fill out the Form 941-X correctly, employers should:

Use the latest version 941-X to reflect the updated laws and regulations that impact the ERC.
Use the IRS worksheets and instructions to calculate and report the ERC
Use Part 2 to indicate the lines on Form 941 that are being corrected or adapted.
Use Part 3 for explaining why form 941 has been corrected or adjusted
Use Line 24 to declare any additional qualified wages or health insurance costs paid by eligible employees.
Use Line 25 to claim any additional credit for each quarter.
Use Line 26 for any refunds or credits due to ERC claims.
Sign and date Form 941, and attach any supporting documentation or schedules

Tips and resources on how to complete Form 941 X include:

Filter a separate Form 941/X for every quarter that needs to be corrected or adjusted Colorado Employee Retention Credit Subtraction
If you discover an error on Form 941 or make an adjustment, file Form 941X as soon as you can.
You can find updates, FAQs, and more information on the IRS site about the ERC and Form 941X.
Need clarification? Contact an IRS agent or tax professional.

Deadline and Statute of Limitations

Form 941 must be filed by the last date of the month that follows the end each quarter. For example, Form 941 for Q1 of 2021 (January to March) is due April 30, 2020. The employer can still file Form 941 if they have deposited their taxes on time. After the end of the quarterly period. Form 941 for the first quarter of 2021 (January – March) is due on May 10, 2021. Colorado Employee Retention Credit Subtraction

The deadline for submitting Form 941X depends on the time period. It is generally three or two years, depending on the date when the original Form 941 has been filed. For Q1 2020 (January – March), for example, Form 941 is due on April 30, 2020. If an employer files Form 941 by April 30, 2020 and pays the tax on April 30 2020, then the deadline to file Form 941-X will be April 30, 2023. If an employer filed form 941 on April 30 2020 and paid the tax by June 15, 2020, then the deadline to file Form 941-X will be June 15, 2022.

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Conclusion

The Employee Retention Credit (ERC) is a valuable tax benefit that can help employers who were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic keep their employees on the payroll and reduce the impact of the pandemic on their businesses or organizations.

The ERC is a refundable tax credit. It varies based on time, number of employees, and amount of wages and health insurance paid to eligible employees. The ERC is claimed by filing IRS Form 941 or 941-X and reporting qualified wages, health insurance costs, and the credit amount claimed for each quarter.

Do not miss out on this opportunity if you’re an employer that meets the ERC eligibility criteria. The ERC has a time limit and deadline for claiming. The forms should be filed as soon as you can. You can use the resources and advice provided in this post to avoid common mistakes and fill them out correctly. If needed, you can also reach out to the IRS or a professional tax advisor for clarification or help.

ERCs can be a huge help to your organization or business and its employees. It can help you retain your workers, maintain your cash flow, and recover from the pandemic. We hope that this article helped you to understand more about ERC and the claim process. We thank you for reading. Please stay safe.

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Colorado Employee Retention Credit Subtraction

What is ERC and what does it do?

Employee Retention Credit – This tax credit is available to employers for keeping their employees employed during the COVID-19 epidemic.

The CARES Act created the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 in March 2021. Later, the CAA (Consolidated Appropriations Act), in December 2020, was amended and expanded by ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act of 2021), in March 2021.

Does everyone qualify for the ERC program?

ERC isn’t available to everyone. Only employers who paid wages and retained employees between March 13, 2019, and December 31, 2020, are eligible.

The criteria for eligibility is also listed above. For the highlights, please see:

A government order imposed a suspension (full or partial) on the business or organization due to COVID-19.
Their gross revenues for a quarter calendar in 2020 or in 2021 were lower than a percentage compared to their gross revenues for the same period in 2019.
It is a recovery-startup business that has been operating since after February 15, 2020. Their average annual gross receipts are no more than one million dollars.

What is the ERC rate?

The amount of ERC an organization or business receives depends on several factors.

One of the factors is the length of time the company has been in business, the number and type of employees it has, the amount that qualifies as wages, or the health insurance premiums paid to employees who are eligible. You can read the article above for a more detailed explanation of how ERC is calculated.

How to claim the ERC?

To claim the ERC, an employer must file a federal employment tax reform or an adjusted employment tax return (Form 941-X) with the IRS.

Employers must declare the wages and costs of health insurance paid to employees who qualify and the credit claimed each quarter.

When is the Deadline for Filing the ERC Forms?

The deadline for filing the ERC forms is different for Form 941 and Form 941-X.

The last day for Form 941 in most cases is the last month following the end each quarter. Meanwhile, the deadline for Form 941-X is generally three years from the date that the original Form 941 was filled. It can also be from two years from the date that the tax was paid, with the later date being the more preferred one.