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Any small business that experienced fully or partially suspended operations due to COVID-19 or a significant decline in gross receipts qualifies for the ERC. 

Qualified wages are wages that will be under consideration when you apply for the ERC. They are wages paid between March 15th, 2020 and September 30th, 2021. The period for qualified wages does extend beyond the September deadline for certain businesses.

If you didn’t take advantage of the Employee Retention Tax Credit during the COVID-19 pandemic, eligible small businesses can now retroactively claim the credit by filing an amended tax return via IRS Form 941-X.

Yes, it is possible to receive the employee retention credit even if you’ve received a PPP loan. However, you can’t claim the ERC for any portion of wages used to qualify for the PPP loan or PPP loan forgiveness.

How you record the ERC as a journal entry depends on when you claimed the credit and if you received it as a refund. You can record the transaction by debiting the Income Tax Expense account and crediting the Cash account if you claimed the ERC on your quarterly return. If you filed an amended return to receive a refund, you will record a debit in your Cash account and a debit under the Income Tax Expense account.

The IRS currently has a backlog of ERC claims, and the current estimated time to receive your ERC is anywhere from four to 12 months. Some ERC funding companies also take several weeks to complete and submit your claim, so make sure that you add in this extra time if you use a third-party service.

It is not too late the claim the ERC. If you qualify, you can file an amended quarterly return using Form 941-X to receive the tax credit in the form of a refund.

The ERC is calculated based on the amount of qualified wages paid by eligible employers to their full-time employees in 2020 or certain calendar quarters of 2021.

While the ERC can be daunting, it is a great way to pay yourself back for keeping your employees on payroll during the different economic shutdowns we experienced in 2020 and beyond. Take some of the stress out of a potentially overwhelming process and consider hiring a professional to help you apply for the ERC. Research never hurts and who knows, you could learn that you’re more of an expert than you thought!

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