What Is The Employee Retention Credit Under The Cares Act

COVID-19 has caused hardships and unprecedented challenges for businesses and organizations all over the world. Many employers have experienced reduced revenues, higher expenses, and disruptions to their operations because of lockdowns, distancing from social media, and health-and-safety measures.

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 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. 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 Employee Retention Credit (ERC)? What Is The Employee Retention Credit Under The Cares Act

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 aims to encourage employers to keep their workers on the payroll and provide them with health benefits during the crisis.

Main Features and Advantages

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 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, 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. What Is The Employee Retention Credit Under The Cares Act
The credit is fully refundable, which means that if it exceeds the employer’s payroll tax liability the excess amount will be returned to the employer.
The credit can be claimed by employers who experienced a significant decline in gross receipts or a full or partial suspension of operations due to a qualifying government order related to COVID-19. For 2023 only, employers that are classified as recovery startup business can claim the credit.
Credits may be obtained by filing a revised employment tax form (Form 941X) or reducing employment deposit amounts in anticipation. The credit can be requested in advance by employers using Form 7200.

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Eligibility Criteria

To qualify for Employee Retention credit (ERC), employers must meet either of 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.
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.

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

Business Suspension

An order of the government can suspend a business or an organization in full or part if it:

The order restricts commerce, travel or group meetings because 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 prohibiting the operation of non-essential businesses
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:

The scope and nature of the order as well as how it impacts the business.
The duration and frequency of the order and how it coincides with the calendar quarters
The impact of an order on revenue and expenses

Revenue Decline

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

The gross receipts of any calendar quarter in 2020 are less than half the gross receipts of the same 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 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 and Services
Rents, dividends, and annuities are examples of income streams that include interest, dividends.
Contributions, gifts, grants, and donations What Is The Employee Retention Credit Under The Cares Act
Membership dues
Gross profit from business or trade

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

Use the same method (cash or accrual accounting) as it used when filing its federal income taxes 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).
It is the same income sources that were reported on the federal income tax returns for 2019.

Recovery Startup Business

A recovery startup is a business:

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

It does not matter if a business meets the criteria of revenue decline or business suspension, a recovery-startup business qualifies for the ERC. Recovery startups are not exempt from certain rules and restrictions.

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 maximum credit available for startup businesses is $250 million.

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Credit Amount Calculation

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

How much the employer’s business was affected by the pandemic, either by having to close or reduce operations due to government orders or by having a big drop in income compared to 2019
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 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 could use this money to pay health insurance for employees or to get refunds and credits for payroll taxes.

The ERC is not available forever. The ERC will expire in September 2022. Employers must claim their ERC before they expire or become unavailable. The employer should also make sure to not waste the money. What Is The Employee Retention Credit Under The Cares Act

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

Time Period

The ERC was introduced, amended, and terminated by different laws in 2020, 2021, and 2022. The amount of the credit varies according to the time period that it is applied for. 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 of eligible employees will affect the calculation and definition of health insurance and qualified wages. The size of an employer depends on its number of FTEs and the time period. 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 wage is the number of wages that are paid to employees who qualify during a time when a business has been suspended or revenue has decreased. The list of qualified wages includes tips, bonuses, commissions, and severance payments, as well as sick leave, family leave, severance, and other compensation. Qualified wages also include the cost of providing health insurance to eligible employees, such as premiums, deductibles, co-pays, and co-insurance.

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 following table summarizes the rules and examples for different scenarios: What Is The Employee Retention Credit Under The Cares Act

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 is required to report the qualified wages, health insurance costs and credit claimed by 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. Form 941 is used by the employer to claim ERC for the current quarter or future. Form 941 allows the employer to do:

ERCs can be used to reduce the amount of tax that an employer must pay to the IRS.
If the ERC is greater than the tax that the employer must deposit, you can request an advance payment. What Is The Employee Retention Credit Under The Cares Act
Any excess credit can be carried forward to the next quarter

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.
Use the IRS worksheets and instructions to calculate and report the ERC
Use Line 11c to declare the wages and costs of health insurance paid to employees who qualify.
Use Line 13d to report the amount of credit claimed for each quarter
Line 13f is used to report any advance payment of credit received by 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 and date Form 941, and include any supporting documents and schedules.

Some tips and resources for filling out Form 941 are:

Form 941 can be submitted faster and more securely by using electronic filing (efile) or online services
Check the IRS website for updates, FAQs, and guidance on Form 941 and the ERC
Contact the IRS or a tax professional for assistance or clarification if needed

Form 941-X

The Form 941 X is used for corrections and adjustments to a Form 941. The employer can also claim the ERC retroactively by using Form 941X. Form 941-X can be used by the employer to: What Is The Employee Retention Credit Under The Cares Act

Claim a refund or credit for overpaid taxes due to claiming the 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

The employer should:

Use the most recent version of Form 941X, which reflects any changes or updates to the ERC laws.
Use the IRS worksheets and instructions to calculate and report 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 for any additional qualified wage and health insurance expenses paid to eligible workers
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.

The following are some resources and tips for filling in Form 941X.

Fill out a separate form 941-X per quarter being corrected or recalculated What Is The Employee Retention Credit Under The Cares Act
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.
You can also contact a tax expert or the IRS for clarification or additional assistance.

Deadline and Statute of Limitations

The deadline for submitting Form 941 generally falls on the last calendar day of the following month. For Q1 2021 (January-March), the Form 941 must be filed by April 30th, 2021. In the event that an employer has deposited the taxes due on time for a particular quarter, Form 941 can be filed by the 10th date of the following month. The end of the quarter. For example, Q1 2020 (January to March) requires that Form 941 be returned by May 10, 2021. What Is The Employee Retention Credit Under The Cares Act

Form 941X must be filed within three years of the original filing date or two from the payment date, whichever comes later. For Q1 2020, (January-March), the Form 941 must be filed by April 30th 2020. 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 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

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 (Eligible Employees Credit) is a tax credit that can vary depending on the time frame, the number and type of employees employed, and the amount paid in wages and insurance to employees eligible for the credit. 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.

You should not miss the opportunity to benefit from this tax incentive if you are an eligible employer. The ERC will not be available indefinitely, and it has a set deadline and statute of limitations. To avoid making common mistakes, you should fill out the forms correctly using the information and tips in this article. If you need clarification or assistance, you can contact the IRS.

The ERC can make a big difference for your business or organization and your employees. It can help your business or organization retain workers, maintain cash flow and recover from a pandemic. This article should have helped you learn more about ERCs and how to apply for them. Thank you for reading, and stay safe.

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What Is The Employee Retention Credit Under The Cares Act

What is the ERC?

Employee Retention Credit (ERC) is a tax incentive for employers that retained their employees on their payrolls during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

It was created in March of 2020 by the CARES Act and later extended and amended by the CAA Act of December 2020 (Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021).

Does everyone qualify for the ERC program?

Not everyone is eligible for the ERC. 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 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.
The business is a startup that started operations after February 15, 2020, and has an average gross revenue of less than $1 million.

How much is ERC?

The amount of ERC an organization or business receives depends on several 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. The article above provides a detailed explanation on how ERC is calculated.

How to claim ERC?

To claim ERC benefits, an employer needs to file Form 941X or federal employment tax reform 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 to submit the ERC form?

The deadlines for filing Forms 941 and 941-X are different.

Form 941 deadline is typically the last of the month following each quarter. The deadline for Forms 941-X, however, is usually three years after the date the original Form was completed. It can be as late as two years after you paid the tax, but the later date is the preferred date.