Qbi Wages And Employee Retention Credit

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

To help employers retain their employees and provide them with health benefits during this difficult time, the U.S. government has introduced the Employee Retention Credit (ERC), a refundable tax credit that can offset some of the payroll costs for eligible employers.

The ERC first became law in 2020 with the CARES Act. It was then extended and modified in subsequent legislations in 2021 and 2023. 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? Qbi Wages And Employee Retention Credit

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 was created by the CARES Act in 2020 and was extended and modified by subsequent legislation in 2021 and 2023. The ERC aims to encourage employers to keep their workers on the payroll and provide them with health benefits during the crisis.

The Main Features and Benefits

Credits are equal to a percent of the qualified wages and costs for health insurance paid to eligible employees up to a limit per employee each quarter.
The credit amount and percentage vary according to the time period in which it is claimed. In 2020, the 50% percentage and $5,000 limit per employee is applicable for the entire calendar year. In 2021, 70% of the employees will be eligible for the maximum. The limit per employee is $7,000. For 2023, there is a 70% percentage for the first 2 quarters followed by 40% for the second two quarters. There is a $10,000 limit per employee. Qbi Wages And Employee Retention Credit
The credit is fully refundable. If the amount of credit exceeds an employer’s liability for payroll tax, the excess will then be paid back to the employer.
Employers may claim the credit if their gross receipts have declined significantly or they have had to suspend operations in whole or part due to a COVID-19-related government order. In addition, employers who qualify as recovery-startup businesses for 2023 can also claim the credits.
Credits can be claimed either by amending your employment tax return (Form 941)-X or by reducing your employment tax deposit in anticipation of receiving the credit. Employers may also request an advanced payment of the credit using Form 7200.

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Eligibility Criteria

To qualify as an employer for the Employee retention Credit (ERC), you must meet at least one of the two criteria below:

The employer’s business or organisation was suspended in whole or in part by a government decree due to the COVID-19, during a quarter calendar of 2020 or 21
The employer’s gross revenues for a quarterly calendar period in 2020, 2021 or both were less that 50% (for the 2020 quarter) or 80% (2021 quarter) of its gross revenue for the same year-ago quarter.

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 can be eligible for ERC regardless of their revenue decline or suspension.

Business Suspension

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

The order limits travel, commerce or group meetings as a result of COVID-19
The order impacts the operations of a business or organization
The order applies to all calendar quarters in 2020 and 2021

These are some examples:

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

Employers must take into account the following to determine whether a business has been suspended in full or in part by an order of government:

How the nature and scope and the order affect the operation of the business
The order’s duration, frequency, and alignment with the calendar quarters
The extent and severity of the impact of the order on the revenues and expenses of the business

Revenue Drop

It is considered a significant decrease in gross revenue if a business has:

The gross receipts of any calendar quarter in 2020 are less than half the gross receipts of the same quarter in 2019.
The gross receipts for any calendar quarter in 2021 were less than 80% of its gross receipts for the same quarter in 2019

Gross receipts are the total amount that a business or organization has received or accrued from all sources, during its annual accounting period. Gross receipts consist of:

Sales of goods and Services
Dividends (rents), royalties and interest
Contributions, gifts and grants Qbi Wages And Employee Retention Credit
Membership dues
Gross profits from trades and businesses

To calculate and compare gross revenue for different quarters using the following:

The same method of accounting (cash or accrual) that it used to file its federal income tax return for 2019
The same calendar year quarters that it used to file its federal employment tax returns (Form 941) for 2019 and 2020/2021
The same sources as reported in the federal tax return for 2019

Recovery Startup Business

A startup that is in recovery can be defined as

After February 15, 2020, you can start any business or trade.
Average annual gross receipts not exceeding $1 million during the three-year period ending on the tax year immediately preceding the calendar quarterly for which the credit will be determined

If a business is in recovery, it can still qualify for ERC even if the business has been suspended or its revenue has declined. Recovery startups are not exempt from certain rules and restrictions.

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

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Credit Amount and Calculation

There are different ERC rules and amounts for different employers and periods of time. The ERC is primarily affected by:

How much business income dropped compared to 2019.
Employer’s number of employees in 2019 or 2021, and whether the employee worked or not.
What the employer paid each employee for their health insurance and during the pandemic

To receive the ERC, employers must submit forms to the IRS. The employer must provide proof of how much they paid their employees for health insurance as well as the ERC. The IRS will verify the forms, and then give the money to your employer. The employer can then use the money for paying their employees, their health insurance and/or to receive refunds or credits on their payroll tax.

The ERC won’t be around forever. The ERC started in March 2020 and ends in September 2022. The employer has to claim the ERC before it expires or becomes unavailable. The employer also has to use the money wisely and not waste it. Qbi Wages And Employee Retention Credit

Below is more detailed information on the credit amount and calculation of ERC.

Time Period

In 2020, 2021, & 2022, different laws were passed to introduce, amend, and terminate the ERC. The amount of credit depends on the time frame for which it’s claimed. The table below summarises key features and differences for the ERC in each time frame:

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. According to the time frame and number of full-time equivalents (FTEs), an employer can be classified as a small employer or large employer. The following table summarizes rules and thresholds to determine employer size.

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)

Earnings and Costs of Health Insurance

Qualified wages refer to wages paid during a period when the business is suspended or revenues are declining. Qualified wages can include severance payment, bonuses, severance tips, sick pay, family pay and other forms compensation. Qualified salaries also include the costs of providing health coverage to eligible workers, including premiums, copays, deductibles, and coinsurance.

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. Qbi Wages And Employee Retention Credit

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

For an employer to claim the Employee retention credit (ERC), they must submit a federal employment return (Form 951) or a revised employment tax report (Form 941X) to the Internal Revenue Service. 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 allows employers to declare their quarterly federal taxes, including income taxes, Medicare and Social Security tax. Form 941 is used by the employer to claim ERC for the current quarter or future. Form 941 can be used by the employer to:

Reduce the amount of taxes that the employer has to deposit with the IRS by the amount of the ERC
Employers can request a payment in advance if their ERC is higher than the taxes they are required to pay. Qbi Wages And Employee Retention Credit
Carry forward any excess credits to future quarters

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

Use the latest Form 941, which reflects all the updates and changes made to the ERC by new laws.
For calculating and reporting your ERC, follow the IRS’s instructions and worksheets.
Use Line 1c to report on the health insurance and wages that eligible employees have received.
Use Line 13d for the credit claim amount per quarter
Use Line 13f for any advance payment received from IRS.
Line 24 is the place to ask for an advance payment if you need it.
Line 25 is the place to enter any excess credit which can be carried to a subsequent quarter.
Sign the form 941, and attach any supporting documents.

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

Use online services or electronic filing to submit Form 941 more quickly and securely
Updates, FAQs, and guidance about Form 941, the ERC, and other IRS forms can be found on the IRS website.
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 allows employers to claim ERC retroactively. Employers can use Form 941/X for Qbi Wages And Employee Retention Credit

Claim the ERC to get a refund of taxes that you have overpaid.
Report any additional wages or health insurance costs that are paid to employees who are eligible but not reported on Form 951.
The amount of credit claimed will be affected by any mistakes or omissions in Form 941.

The employer should:

Use the latest form 941X that reflects changes to laws that are applicable to the ERC.
Use the IRS worksheets and instructions to calculate and report the ERC
Use Part 2 of Form 941 to indicate which lines are being amended or corrected.
Use Part 3 to explain why Form 941 is being corrected or adjusted
Use Line 24 to report any additional qualified wages and health insurance costs paid to eligible employees
Use Line 25 for any additional credit claimed each quarter.
Use Line 26 for any refunds or credits due to ERC claims.
Sign and date the Form 941 X and add any supporting documents or schedules.

Some tips and resources for filling out Form 941-X are:

Filter a separate Form 941/X for every quarter that needs to be corrected or adjusted Qbi Wages And Employee Retention Credit
After making a correction or finding an error, you should file Form 941X.
The IRS website has updated FAQs on the ERC, Form 941 X, and updates to the IRS website.
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 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, the Q1 of 2021 is January-March. The Form 941 should be received by May 10th, 2021. Qbi Wages And Employee Retention Credit

The deadline to file Form 941-X generally is three years after the date the original Form 941 is filed, or two years after the date the tax is paid. For example, Q1 2019 (January to March), Form 941 had to be submitted by April 30, 2019. If an employer submitted Forms 941 on 30 April 2020 and the tax was paid on 30 April 2020, it is now April 2023 before they can file Forms 941-X. If an employers filed Forms 941 and paid taxes on June 15, 2019, the deadline is 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 that varies depending on the time period, the number of employees, and the amount of qualified wages and health insurance costs paid to eligible employees. You can claim the ERC by submitting Form 941 to the IRS. This form will ask you for the number of employees, the amount paid in qualified wages and insurance costs each quarter, and how much credit is being claimed.

Do not miss out on this opportunity if you’re an employer that meets the ERC eligibility criteria. The ERC is not available forever and has a deadline and a statute of limitations for claiming it. 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 also contact the IRS or a tax professional for assistance or clarification if needed.

The ERC is a great tool for both your business and 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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Qbi Wages And Employee Retention Credit

What is the ERC?

Employee Retention Credit is an employer tax credit available to employers who kept their employees on payroll during COVID-19.

The CARES Act was passed in March 2020. It was amended and extended in December 2020 by the CAA Act (Consolidated Appropriations Act) and in March 2021 by the ARPA Act (American Rescue Plan Act of 2021).

Can everyone apply for ERC?

ERC eligibility is not universal. 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.

Below are some details about eligibility.

A government-issued order temporarily or permanently suspended the organization or business 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 ERC received by a business or organization will depend upon several factors.

Some of these include the time period and number of employees. Others are the amount paid in qualified wages or health insurance to eligible employees. If you want a more detailed explanation, read the above article.

How do I claim my ERC?

To receive the ERC, employers must file with the IRS a Form 941-X (revised employment tax returns) or a Federal Employment Tax Reform.

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 to file the ERC Forms

The deadlines for filing ERC forms for Forms 941 and form 941 X are different.

For Form 941 is generally the last day of the month following the end of 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.