Practice owners who received grants and subsidies through the CARES ACT or other sources can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Here are the remaining steps to take in connection with these grants and subsidies.
PPP1 Loan Forgiveness:
Most practices received their PPP1 loans back in April or May 2020. They had 24 weeks to spend the money, and then 10 months from the end of the Covered Period to file for the PPP Loan forgiveness before payments would become due on the loan. The real deadline to file for the PPP Loan Forgiveness is the end of the loan term, which is 2 years for the early PPP loans that were paid out. When a practice owner files for forgiveness, any payments made towards the PPP loan would be fully refunded at that time.
While some of our clients filed for the PPP Loan Forgiveness on their own, others asked for our assistance. If you filed on your own, please email practicehelp@schwartzaccountants.com to confirm:
- Whether your loan was fully or partially forgiven
- And whether you only reported payroll costs on the PPP forgiveness application or included facility costs in addition to the payroll costs.
We’ll need to know how you filed for your PPP1 forgiveness to be able to calculate the maximum Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC) that your practice is eligible to receive. (See below)
PPP2 Loan Forgiveness:
Most practices received their PPP2 loans in January or February 2021. That means the end of the 24-week Covered Period is right about now, and the PPP lenders have begun asking those PPP2 loan recipients to file for forgiveness. Generally, the same rules apply as filing for PPP1 forgiveness, and the deadline to file is 10 months after the end of the Covered Period.
If you filed with your lender for forgiveness on your own, please feel free to file the PPP2 application by yourself as well. If you’d like our help, the fee for practices that received less than $150k is $750, discounted to $500 if our firm handles the payroll for your practice. If you think you might be eligible for the ERTC for any quarter of 2021, you might qualify for a larger payroll tax credit if you have us complete the PPP2 loan forgiveness. To be eligible for the ERTC in 2021, your quarterly collections for any quarter in 2020 must be 20% lower than the same quarter of 2019.
Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC):
We have just started working through the calculations to see how much of an Employee Retention Tax
Credit your practice will be eligible to receive. This calculation is quite involved since the ERTC period and the PPP1 period overlap one another, and wages used for the PPP loan forgiveness must be excluded from the ERTC calculation. We have read through the instructions multiple times and have developed a few complex Excel spreadsheets utilizing Pivot tables to help us sift through your QuickBooks and Payroll data to do the math and come up with the highest allowable ERTC.
Here is the order that we will be making the ERTC Calculations:
- First batch: Practices using the online version of QuickBooks and also clients of our firm’s payroll service
- Second batch: Practices using QuickBooks Online who use another payroll service provider
- Third batch: Practices using the desktop version of QuickBooks
Our plan is to start by calculating the amount of the ERTC your practice is eligible to receive and email you that potential tax credit. You can then decide if you want us to move forward to prepare the paperwork to file for the ERTC.
Remember, the amount of the ERTC reduces the deduction you can claim for your payroll costs, causing most practice owners to repay about 40% of the tax credit received to the IRS and their home state.
Our fee to make the ERTC calculation and prepare the necessary paperwork will be $500 per employee for the first six employees included in the ERTC calculation, and then $250 per employee starting with the seventh employee eligible for the tax credit, capped at $7,500. $1,000 will be due at the time the Form 941-X is prepared by us, with the remainder due when you receive the tax credit.
Most practices owners, therefore, will be repaying about half of the Employee Retention Tax Credit they receive in taxes and fees. Please factor in these costs when trying to decide whether to have us prepare this paperwork for you to file for the ERTC.
Check out https://schwartzaccountants.com/2021/06/ertc-summary/ for our most recent blog post on the ERTC.
Provider Relief Fund Self-Reporting:
If your practice received a Provider Relief Fund Grant of more than $10k from HRSA, you are required to self-report that you utilized those funds properly. On 6/11/21, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) issued guidance available at: https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/provider-post-payment-notice-of-reporting-requirements-june-2021.pdf.
For medical practices that received more than $10k prior to 6/30/20, the self-reporting period already commenced on July 1st and you need to complete the online application by 9/30/21. In August, we will be reaching out to our medical practice clients who received more than $10k in Provider Relief Funds prior to 6/30/20 to help fulfill this filing requirement. Our fee to assist with the HRSA Provider Relief Fund self-reporting is $500.
For those practices that received PRFs of more than $10k between 7/1/20 and 12/31/20, your self-reporting period starts 1/1/22 and ends 3/31/22. And the self-reporting period for practice receiving PRFs in excess of $10k between 1/1/21 and 6/30/21 commences on 7/1/22 and ends on 9/30/22.
You can access the Provider Relief Fund Reporting Portal at: https://prfreporting.hrsa.gov/s/. The first step is to register to set up your account. Please register using your email address as the username, but then use practicehelp@schwartzaccountants.com as the contact email if you will be having us help you out with this self-reporting application. Our fee is $500 to assist with the self-reporting application.
Check out https://schwartzaccountants.com/2021/06/hrsa-provides-update-on-the-provider-relief-fund-prf-self-reporting-requirement/ for our most recent blog post on the HRSA Provider Relief Fund.