What Is A Partial Shutdown For Employee Retention Credit

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented challenges and hardships for many businesses and organizations around the world. Due to lockdowns and social distancing as well as health and safety measures, many employers have seen their revenues and expenses drop, while operations are disrupted.

The Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERC) is a refundable credit that employers can use to offset payroll costs.

The ERC is a program that was introduced by the CARES Act of 2020. Subsequent legislation was passed in 2021 and in 2023 to extend and modify it. This article will explain the ERC, how it functions, and how you can claim it.

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? What Is A Partial Shutdown For Employee Retention Credit

Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERC), is a refundable tax credit for organizations and businesses with employees who have been affected by COVID-19. 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 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

The credit is equal to a percentage of qualified wages and health insurance costs paid to eligible employees, up to a certain limit per employee per quarter.
The credit amount and percentage vary according to the time period in which it is claimed. For 2020, the percent is 50%, and the limit is $5,000 for each employee per year. In 2021, 70% of the employees will be eligible for the maximum. The limit per employee is $7,000. For 2023, the percentage will be 70% for the two first quarters and 40% for the two last quarters. The limit per employee per quarter is $10,000. What Is A Partial Shutdown For Employee Retention Credit
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 can claim this credit if they experienced a significant decrease in gross receipts due to an order from the government relating to COVID-19. For 2023 only, employers that are classified as recovery startup business can claim the credit.
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 can also request an advance payment of the credit by filing Form 7200.

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Eligibility Criteria

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

A government order suspended the employer’s organization or business in full or part due to COVID-19 for a calendar quarter of 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.

There is also a special rule that applies to recovery startups, which are businesses that started operations after February 15th 2020 with gross receipts no higher than $1,000,000 on average. These businesses may qualify for ERC regardless of revenue or business suspension.

Business Suspension

A government order may suspend a business, or even partially suspend it.

The order restricts commerce, travel or group meetings because of COVID-19
The order impacts the operations of a business or organization
This order is applicable to any calendar quarter of 2020 or 2021

Here are some examples of government orders that can result in a business being suspended:

Stay-at-home orders restricting non-essential business operations
Businesses are restricted in their operating hours by curfews
Limits to the number of clients or customers that a company can serve
Travel bans and restrictions that restrict the ability for a company to transport services or goods

To determine whether an employer’s business was suspended fully or partially by a government directive, the employer must:

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

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 from any calendar quarter during 2021 are less than 80% compared to the same quarter’s gross receipts from 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 can include:

Sales of Goods & Services
Dividends, rents, and royalties, as well as interest, are all examples of annuities.
Donations, contributions, grants and gifts What Is A Partial Shutdown For Employee Retention Credit
Membership fees and dues
Gross revenue from businesses or trades

To calculate and compare gross receipts for different quarters, an employer must use:

The same method for accounting (cash-based or accrual-based) that was used to file the federal income Tax return for 2019
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 of income that it reported on its federal income tax return for 2019

Recovery Startup Business

A recovery startup is a business:

After February 15, 2020, you can start any business or trade.
Have average annual gross income of no more than $1 million over the three-year period ending the tax year before the calendar quarter in which the credit is 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. There are certain limitations and rules that apply to recovery startups businesses.

The maximum credit amount per quarter is $50,000
The credit will only be available to employees who have paid wages in the third quarter and fourth of 2021
The maximum credit available for startup businesses is $250 million.

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Credit Amounts Calculation

There are different ERC rules and amounts for different employers and periods of time. The main factors that affect the ERC are:

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.
The number of employees that the employer has in 2019 or 2020/2021 and whether or not they worked during the pandemic
How much did the employer pay each employee in health insurance?

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 employer can use the money to pay their employees and their health insurance or to get refunds or credits for their payroll taxes.

The ERC will not be available indefinitely. It started in March 2020 and will end in September 2022. The employer must claim the ERC prior to its expiration or becoming unavailable. The employer also has to use the money wisely and not waste it. What Is A Partial Shutdown For Employee Retention Credit

Here is more information about the ERC and its calculation.

Time Period

The ERC was implemented, amended, or terminated by various laws in 2020. Credit amounts vary depending on when they are 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. Employers are classified as small or large employers based on their number of full-time workers (FTEs), and the period in which they were employed. The table below summarizes all the rules and thresholds that determine an employer’s 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)

Qualified Wages & Health Insurance Costs

Qualified wages include wages paid to eligible workers during a business suspension or revenue decrease. Other forms of compensation are also included in qualified wages, such as tips, bonuses and commissions. Qualified wages include health insurance costs for eligible employees such as co-pays and deductibles.

The definition and calculation of qualified wages and health insurance costs depend on the employer size and the time period. The table below summarizes rules and examples in different scenarios. What Is A Partial Shutdown For 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 and Report the Credit

For the Internal Revenue Service to grant the Employee Retention credit (ERC), employers must file either a federal tax return for employment (Form 941), or an amended tax return for employment (Form941-X). The employer is required to report the qualified wages, health insurance costs and credit claimed by each quarter.

Form 941

Form 941 reports the quarterly federal tax liability of an employer, including income tax and Medicare taxes. The employer can also claim the ERC in Form 941 for future or current quarters. Form 941 can be used by the employer to:

ERCs can be used to reduce the amount of tax that an employer must pay to the IRS.
Request an advance payment of the ERC if the credit exceeds the taxes that the employer has to deposit What Is A Partial Shutdown For Employee Retention Credit
Any excess credit can be carried forward to the next quarter

The employer should:

Use the latest Form 941, which reflects all the updates and changes made to the ERC by new laws.
Follow the IRS instructions and worksheets for calculating the ERC and reporting it.
Use Line 11c to report the qualified wages and health insurance costs paid to eligible employees
Use Line 13d for the credit claim amount per quarter
Use Line 13f to report any advance payments of the credit received from the IRS
Use Line 24 if you require an advance credit payment.
Line 25 is the place to enter any excess credit which can be carried to a subsequent quarter.
Sign and date Form 941, attaching any supporting documents, schedules, or schedules.

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

Use online services (e-file or online filing) to submit Form 941, faster and with greater security.
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

The Form 941X can be used to make corrections or adjustments on an earlier Form 941. Form 941-X also allows the employer to claim the ERC retroactively for past quarters. The employer may use Form 941 to: What Is A Partial Shutdown For Employee Retention Credit

Claim your refund or credit due to overpaid taxes by claiming the ERC
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.

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

Use the latest Form 941-X which reflects all the updates and changes made to the ERC by new laws.
Follow the instructions and worksheets provided by the IRS for calculating and reporting the ERC
Use Part 2 to indicate which lines of Form 941 are being corrected or adjusted
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 to report any credit or refund due to the ERC claim.
Attach any supporting documents and schedules to Form 941-X.

Here are some tips and resources to help you fill out Form 941X:

For each quarter to be adjusted or corrected, you must submit a different Form 941X. What Is A Partial Shutdown For Employee Retention Credit
You should fill out Form 941/X as quickly as possible after you have made an adjustment or discovered an error.
Check the IRS website for updates, FAQs, and guidance on Form 941-X and the ERC
Need clarification? Contact an IRS agent or tax professional.

Deadline and Statute of Limitations

The deadline to submit Form 941 is usually the last day in the month following each quarter. For example, Q1 2020 (January-March) Form 941 will be due on April 30, 2021. Nevertheless, if the employer deposited all taxes due in a given quarter on time, they may file Form 941 before the 10th day. The end of the quarter. For example, the Q1 of 2021 is January-March. The Form 941 should be received by May 10th, 2021. What Is A Partial Shutdown For Employee Retention Credit

The deadline for filing Form 941-X is generally three years from the date that the original Form 941 was filed or two years from the date that the tax was paid, whichever is later. For example, Q1 2019 (January to March), Form 941 had to be submitted by April 30, 2019. If an employee filed Form 941 in April 2020 and paid their tax in April 2020, the deadline to file the Form 941 X is April 30 2023. If an employers filed Forms 941 and paid taxes on June 15, 2019, the deadline is June 15, 2022.

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Conclusion

Employee Retention (ERC) Credit is an important tax benefit which can help employers that were affected by COVID-19 to retain their employees, and lessen the impact the pandemic had on their organizations or businesses.

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 can be claimed by filing Form 941 or Form 941-X with the IRS and reporting the qualified wages and health insurance costs and the amount of credit claimed for each quarter.

This tax benefit is available to employers who meet the ERC’s eligibility criteria. The ERC is not available forever and has a deadline and a statute of limitations for claiming it. Use the resources and tips provided in this article to ensure that you fill out your forms correctly and avoid common mistakes. If needed, you can also reach out to the IRS or a professional tax advisor for clarification or help.

The ERC can make a big difference for your business or organization and your employees. It will help you to keep your employees, maintain a healthy cash flow, as well as recover from 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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What Is A Partial Shutdown For Employee Retention Credit

What is the ERC?

The Employee Retention Credit is a tax credit for employers who retained their employees in their payroll during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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).

Is everyone eligible for the ERC?

ERC isn’t available to everyone. It is only available to employers who have retained employees and paid their wages to them between March 13, 2020, and December 31, 2021.

Below are some details about eligibility.

A government order imposed a suspension (full or partial) on the business or organization due to COVID-19.
The gross receipts they had for a calendar-quarter in 2020, 2021 or both were less than 10% of their gross receipts during the same quarter last year.
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.

How much is ERC?

The amount of ERC that a company will receive depends on a number of factors.

Some of these factors include the time period, the number of employees, the number of qualified wages, and health insurance costs paid to eligible employees. 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.

The employer must report the qualified wages and health insurance costs paid to eligible employees and the amount of credit claimed for each quarter.

What is the deadline for submitting the ERC forms?

The deadlines of Form 941, Form 941X and ERC 941 are different.

The last day to submit Form 941 for each quarter is the last calendar month. While the deadline for the Form 941-X will be three years after you filled out the original Form 941. It can also be from two years from the date that the tax was paid, with the later date being the more preferred one.