Employee Retention Credit Leyton

COVID-19 has caused hardships and unprecedented challenges for businesses and organizations all over the world. Many employers faced decreased revenues, increased costs, and disruptions of operations as a result of lockdowns.

Employee Retention Credit is a refundable income tax credit available to eligible employers that helps them retain their employees while providing health benefits.

The ERC was first enacted by the CARES Act in 2020 and was later extended and modified by subsequent legislation in 2021 and 2023. The ERC will be explained in this article, along with how it works and the different eligibility criteria and time periods for which it can be claimed.

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? Employee Retention Credit Leyton

Employee Retention Credit (ERC) is a refundable credit available to tax-exempt and for-profit organizations and businesses that have employees who were affected by COVID-19. The ERC has been created by the CARES Act for 2020. It was further extended and modified with subsequent legislation in 2021, 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 & Benefits

Credits are equal in percentage to the wages and insurance costs that employees who qualify for them have paid, but there is a maximum per employee.
The credit amount and percentage vary according to the time period in which it is claimed. In 2020, 50% of the employees will be eligible for the credit, with a maximum limit of $5,000 per employee. In 2021, 70% of the employees will be eligible for the maximum. The limit per employee is $7,000. In 2023, 70% of the employees will be eligible for the first two quarterly limits and 40% in the final two. The limit for each employee is $10,000. Employee Retention Credit Leyton
The credit will be fully refundable if its amount exceeds that of the employer’s payroll taxes.
Employers can claim this credit if they experienced a significant decrease in gross receipts due to an order from the government relating to COVID-19. Employers who are considered to be recovery startup businesses may also claim this credit, but only for 2023.
Credits may be obtained by filing a revised employment tax form (Form 941X) or reducing employment deposit amounts in anticipation. Employers may also request an advanced payment of the credit using Form 7200.

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Eligibility Criteria

Employers who wish to qualify for Employee Retention Credit (ERC) must meet two main criteria.

A government order has suspended or halted the business or organization of an employer due to COVID-19 in a calendar year 2020 or 2021.
Gross receipts of an employer for a quarter calendar in 2020 or in 2021 are less than half (for 2020) and 80% (for 2021) their gross receipts from the same period in 2019.

A special rule is in place for businesses that have started operating after February 15, 2020, and whose average gross receipts per year are no more than one million dollars. These businesses may qualify for ERC regardless of revenue or business suspension.

Business Suspension

A government order can either suspend or fully suspend a company or organization if the following conditions are met:

The order prohibits travel, group meetings, and commerce due to COVID-19
The order has a direct impact on the operations of an organization or business
This order is applicable to any calendar quarter of 2020 or 2021

Examples of government orders which can lead to a suspension of business include:

Orders to stay at home that prevent non-essential companies from operating
Businesses are restricted in their operating hours by curfews
Capacity limitations that reduce the amount of customers or clientele that a firm can service
Travel bans and restrictions that restrict the ability for a company to transport services or goods

To determine if the business was partially or fully suspended by an official order, employers must consider:

How the nature and scope and the order affect the operation of the business
The length, frequency, and timing of the order in relation to the quarters of the year.
The extent and severity of the impact of the order on the revenues and expenses of the business

Revenue Drop

It is considered that a business or organization has experienced a significant drop in gross receipts when:

The gross receipts from any quarter in 2020 is less than 50% its gross receipts from the same calendar quarter in 2019.
The gross revenue for any quarter of 2021 was less than 80% that for the same period in 2019.

Gross receipts are the total sums that an organization or a business has accrued or received from all its sources in a given accounting year, without any deductions. Gross receipts are:

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

To compare gross revenues for different quarters an employer can use:

The same method for accounting (cash-based or accrual-based) that was used to file the federal income Tax return for 2019
Use the same calendar quarters as it did for its federal employment tax return (Form 941 ) for 2019 and 2021/2022
The same sources of revenue that they reported on their federal income tax return in 2019

Recovery Startup Business

A recovery startup is a business:

Begun carrying on any business after February 15th, 2020
Has average annual gross receipts of no more than $1 million for the three-tax-year period ending with the tax year that precedes the calendar quarter for which the credit is determined

The ERC is available to a recovery startup business regardless of whether or not it meets the criteria for business suspension or revenue decrease. Recovery startup businesses are subject to certain 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
Credits for recovery startups are subject to a maximum of $250 million.

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Credit Amounts and Calculation

There are different ERC rules and amounts for different employers and periods of time. The ERC is affected by the following main factors:

The employer’s business has been affected by the pandemic. This could be due to the government ordering the closure or reduction of operations or a significant drop in income from 2019.
Employer’s number of employees in 2019 or 2021, and whether the employee worked or not.
How much each employee received from their employer and how they were covered by health insurance in the 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 review the forms and pay the money back to the employer. The employer may use the money in order to pay their employees’ health insurance premiums, or get refunds for their payroll tax.

The ERC will not be available indefinitely. The ERC will expire in September 2022. The employer has to claim the ERC before it expires or becomes unavailable. Employers must also use the money well and not waste it. Employee Retention Credit Leyton

You can find more information below on ERC calculation and credit amount.

Time Period

The ERC was implemented, amended, or terminated by various laws in 2020. Credit amounts vary depending on when they are claimed. The following table summarizes and compares the ERC’s main features for each 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

Number of Employees

The number employed affects how wages are calculated and defined, as well as the health insurance premiums for eligible employees. A small employer or a large employer is determined by the number of employees who worked full-time (FTEs) in 2019 and the time period. The table below summarizes the rules and thresholds for determining employer size in 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. Other forms of compensation are also included in qualified wages, such as tips, bonuses and commissions. Qualified salaries also include the costs of providing health coverage to eligible workers, including premiums, copays, deductibles, and coinsurance.

The size of an employer’s business and the period in which they operate will determine the definition and calculation for qualified wages and health care costs. The table below summarizes rules and examples in different scenarios. Employee Retention Credit Leyton

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

To claim the Employee Retention Credit (ERC), an employer must file a federal employment tax return (Form 941) or an adjusted employment tax return (Form 941-X) with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The employer has to report each quarter the wages and costs of health insurance paid to employees who are eligible and the credit claimed.

Form 941

Form 941 is used by employers to report their quarterly federal tax liabilities, which includes income tax, Medicare tax, and social security tax. Form 941 allows the employer also to claim ERCs in current or future quarters. Form 941 can be used by the employer to:

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

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

Use the latest version of Form 941 that reflects the changes and updates made by the laws that affect the ERC
Use the IRS worksheets and instructions to calculate and report the ERC
Use Line 11c to report the qualified wages and health insurance costs paid to eligible employees
Use Line 13d to declare the credit amount claimed for each quarter
Use Line 13f to report any advance payments of the credit received from the IRS
Line 24 is the place to ask for an advance payment if you need it.
Use Line 25 to report any credit excess that can be carried over to the next quarter.
Sign the form 941, and attach any supporting documents.

Some tips and resources for filling out Form 941 are:

Use online services (e-file or online filing) to submit Form 941, faster and with greater security.
Check the IRS website for updates, FAQs, and guidance on Form 941 and the ERC
For clarifications or help, you can contact the IRS.

Form 941-X

Form 941-X is used to correct errors or make adjustments on a previously filed Form 941. Form 941 X also allows for the employer to claim ERC retroactively. Employers can use Form 941/X for Employee Retention Credit Leyton

Claim a credit or refund for the taxes you overpaid by claiming ERC
Report additional qualified wage and health insurance expenses paid to eligible employees which were not reported in Form 941
Correct any mistakes or omissions made on Form 941 that affect the amount of credit claimed

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

Use the latest version 941-X to reflect the updated laws and regulations that impact the ERC.
Follow the IRS instructions and worksheets for calculating the ERC and reporting it.
Use Part 2 to indicate the lines on Form 941 that are being corrected or adapted.
Use Part 3 to explain why Form 941 is being corrected or adjusted
Line 24 is used to report additional wages and health insurance premiums paid to eligible employees.
Use Line 25 to report any additional amount of credit claimed for each quarter
Use Line 26 to report any credit or refund due to the ERC claim.
Attach any supporting documents and schedules to Form 941-X.

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

Fill out a separate form 941-X per quarter being corrected or recalculated Employee Retention Credit Leyton
File Form 941-X as soon as possible after discovering an error or making an 0adjustment on Form 941
Visit the IRS website to get the latest updates, FAQs, and guidance regarding Form 941-X, the ERC, and other forms.
For clarifications or help, you can contact the IRS.

Deadline and Statute of Limitations

The last day to file Form 941 usually falls on the last month after the end of each quarterly period. For Q1 2021 (January-March), the Form 941 must be filed by April 30th, 2021. The employer can still file Form 941 if they have deposited their taxes on time. The end of the quarter. For example, Q1 2020 (January to March) requires that Form 941 be returned by May 10, 2021. Employee Retention Credit Leyton

Form 941X must be filed within three years of the original filing date or two from the payment date, whichever comes later. For Q1 of 2020 (January through March), the deadline for Form 941 to be filed was April 30, 2020. If the employer has filed Forms 941 and paid tax by April 30th 2020, they have until April 30th 2023 to submit Form 941X. If an employer files Form 941 in April 2020 and pays the tax on June 15 2020, they have until June 15 2022 to file Form 941.

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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, a refundable credit, varies according to the time period and number of employees as well as the amount of qualified wage and health insurance expenses paid to employees who are eligible. The ERC credit can be claimed with IRS Forms 941 or 941X by reporting to them the qualified health insurance and wages costs as well as the amount claimed each quarter.

This tax benefit is available to employers who meet the ERC’s eligibility criteria. The ERC has a time limit and deadline for claiming. You should file your forms as soon as possible and use the tips and resources provided in this article to fill them out correctly and avoid common errors. You can contact the IRS for help or clarification, or you could consult a tax expert.

The ERC can make a big difference for your business or organization and your employees. You can use it to retain employees, keep your cash flowing, and recover after a pandemic. We hope that this article helped you to understand more about ERC and the claim process. Thank you for reading. Stay safe.

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Employee Retention Credit Leyton

What is the ERC?

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

The CARES Act, passed by Congress in March of this year, was amended in December of that year by the CAA Act. In March 2021, the ARPA Act (American Rescue Plan Act of 2021), was extended.

Who is eligible for the ERC?

The ERC is not available to everyone. Employers only eligible for the ERC are those who have retained and paid wages to their employees between March 14, 2020 and Dec 31, 2021.

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

The business or organization was suspended (fully or partially) by government order due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Their gross receipts in a quarter of 2020 or 2021 are less than the percentage of their gross revenue in the same quarter of 2019.
The business is a startup that started operations after February 15, 2020, and has an average gross revenue of less than $1 million.

What is the ERC worth?

The amount ERC received by a business or organization will depend upon 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. For a detailed explanation of ERC, you can read the article mentioned above.

How to claim 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?

There are two different deadlines to file the ERC Forms: Form 941 (Form 941-X) and Form 941 (941).

Form 941 deadline is typically the last of the month following each quarter. Meanwhile, the deadline for Form 941-X is generally three years from the date that the original Form 941 was filled. This can also be up to two years, based on the date when the tax is paid.