The Employee Retention Credit (ERC) is a refundable tax credit, which means the IRS will mail a tax refund check to eligible businesses. It is the result of a stimulus program created by Congress to compensate businesses that retained employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. The program has been amended several times since it was initially enacted into law, and it has complex rules to assess eligibility and calculate the maximum available credit. While the simplest eligibility test is tied to a material decline in sales (revenue) in 2020 or 2021, many businesses are eligible whether or not they experienced a revenue decline or participated in the Paycheck Protection Program.

Your business may qualify for a maximum of $26,000 per employee, but most businesses do not qualify for the full amount since eligibility is determined on a quarter-by-quarter basis. The professionals at Accelerate Tax are ERC experts and will help your business get the highest refund possible, by assessing every eligibility option you may have in 2020 and 2021 and maximizing applicable payroll amounts.

Unlike the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), most banks and financial institutions are not participating in this program because unlike the PPP, the ERC is not a forgivable loan program. The ERC is a unique and specialized tax credit. Many accountants and CPAs are not processing ERC applications because it is a one-time program and because of the unique complexities for determining qualification and the size of the credit. 

Yes, you likely are.  You may be eligible if you were affected by a partial or complete government shutdown. This could include examples where face-to-face customer interactions were limited or your supply chain was materially impacted.

In order to process your application, we will need you to provide us with revenue information, payroll data, previously filed IRS Form 941s, and 2019 employee counts. One of our ERC professionals will then prepare and file your Form 941-Xs and supporting documentation with the IRS.

If your business qualifies for our Rapid ERC payment program, you could receive your refund within 1-2 weeks. Our Rapid ERC program provides term loans or cash advances of up to 100% of your ERC amount.

The IRS does not have a customer portal to provide status updates on your application. For customers that are not eligible for, or do not take advantage of, our Rapid ERC program, we ask that you are patient while the IRS processes your refund. This could take a few months for smaller credits and a year or more for larger credits.

Even if your business received a PPP loan, you may still be eligible for ERC. PPP loan forgiveness may reduce the size of your ERC in certain quarters, depending on the amount of the PPP loan that was forgiven and other payroll information.  Our CPAs are experts in maximizing your ERC.