Maximize Your Funds With Our ERC Service

Despite applications still being accepted for retroactive quarters, we have not heard of any funds actually being paid out since 2023. 

However, it's important to note that the program is not officially closed at the time that this FAQ was addressed.

To get an idea of if you may be eligible for the ERC, check out the following criteria.

2020 ERC Eligibility

• You were in business before February 16, 2020.
• You have 500 or fewer W-2 employees.
• A quarter in 2020 has sales down by at least 50% of the corresponding quarter's in 2019 OR your business was subject to a full or partial shutdown order in this quarter, and you paid out wages to your employees while it was shut down.

Q1 & Q2 2021 ERC Eligibility

• You were in business before February 16, 2020.
• You have 500 or fewer W-2 employees.
• Q1 and/or Q2 2021 sales are less than 80% of the corresponding quarter's in 2019 OR your business was subject to a full or partial shutdown order in this quarter, and you paid out wages to your employees while it was shut down.

Q3 2021 ERC Eligibility

• You have 500 or fewer W-2 employees.
• You were in business before February 16, 2020 OR you have under $1 million in sales.
• Q1 and/or Q2 2021 have sales down by at least 90% of the corresponding quarter's in 2019 OR Q1 and/or Q2 2021 sales are less than 80% of the corresponding quarter's in 2019 OR your business was subject to a full or partial shutdown order in this quarter, and you paid out wages to your employees while it was shut down.

Q4 2021 ERC Eligibility

• You have 500 or fewer W-2 employees.
• You were not in business before February 16, 2020.
• You have under $1 million in sales.

The ERC was initially overshadowed by the hype from PPP loans and stimulus checks. Plus, not many eligible small businesses have claimed the ERC because they worry that they’ll be on the hook for claims made incorrectly.

If a business contacts you and claims they can collect the ERC for you without knowing details of your business’s performance, you should be skeptical.

It’s extremely important to go with a reputable company that doesn’t make premature promises or cut corners on applications. You may be held liable for incorrect claims.

We foresee small businesses going through audits and having to pay back incorrectly distributed credits - plus penalties and interest.

Even though the PPP loans are done being distributed (as of May 31, 2021), their eligibility was only slightly different than the eligibility for the ERC.

While the ERC started out more difficult to meet eligibility, it eventually became easier to qualify. The PPP was the opposite; it began easier to meet eligibility and later became more difficult to qualify.

PPP 1 (First Draw)

The first round of PPP loans had almost no criteria, so long as:

• You were a small business of under 500 employees.
• You were paying employees by February 15, 2020.

It would grant you funds that would either need to be paid back or spent on eligible expenses.

PPP 2 (Second Draw)

For the second round, you were eligible if:

• You had used the full amount of the First Draw PPP loan.
• You had under 300 employees.
• You could show a reduction in revenues of at least 25 percent between 2019 and 2020 based on quarterly amounts.

We like to refer to this analogy; you can own both a pool and a hot tub, but you can’t be in both at the same time.

Business owners who received PPP loans and had them forgiven can also get the ERC, but the money that was used in the PPP loan forgiveness can’t also be applied to claiming the ERC.

Some wages don’t qualify for the ERC, such as wages over $10,000 paid to any one employee or wages paid to the owner or a family member, but these wages can be used in PPP loan forgiveness.