The Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC) has had quite a journey since first being introduced as part of the CARES Act last March.  Originally, business owners who took the PPP Loan weren’t eligible for this valuable payroll tax credit.

That all changed in December when Trump signed his stimulus package into law.  Suddenly, anyone who received a PPP Loan could ALSO amend their 941 payroll tax forms to receive the ERTC, provided their practice was either closed due to a government mandate or saw its revenue in a 2020 calendar quarter decrease by 50% or more from the same quarter of 2019. Practice with a decrease of 20% of more in a 2021 calendar quarter as compared to the same quarter in 2019 also qualify. Most of our healthcare clients qualify for the ERTC.

Biden made the ERTC even more valuable when he signed the March 2021 stimulus bill into law.

For a summary of the current set of ERTC rules:

Applying for the ERTC is pretty complicated.  For starters, you will need to go to your QBO to see which quarters you qualify for this payroll tax credit.  You will then coordinate the wages you claim for this credit with the minimum amount of wages utilized for the PPP Loan Forfeiture application. Lastly, you need to prepare and file Amended 941 Forms, which is a payroll tax form filed quarterly with the IRS.

We’ll be reaching out to our clients soon to offer assistance with filing for the Employee Retention Tax Credit. If you would like our assistance to file for the ERTC, please email us at practicehelp@schwartzaccountants.com.