The Employee Retention Credit (ERC) is a Payroll Tax Credit designed to reward businesses for retaining employees during COVID-19. The credit was initially signed into law March 2020 as part of the CARES Act. The credit was later expanded upon with the Consolidated Appropriations Act in December 2020 and the American Rescue Plan Act in June 2021
Business Owners can receive a refundable credit up to $5,000 per employee in 2020, and $7,000 per employee, per quarter (excluding the 4th quarter), in 2021 for qualified wages.
Qualified
W-2 wages
*Wages paid to 1099 contractors do not qualify
Who is eligible to claim ERC?
1
Reduction in Revenue
Results in a credit per quarter affected
50%
IN 2020
If there is a reduction in your gross receipts in 2020 when comparing to the same quarter in 2019 by at least 50%
20%
IN 2021
If there is a reduction in your gross receipts in 2021 when comparing to the same quarter in 2019 by at least 20%
2
Impacted by Government Orders
Results in a credit per date range affected
If a governmental order had more than a nominal impact on your business operations, such as:
Required to fully or partially suspend operations tied to governmental orders
Limiting occupancy to provide for social distancing due to governmental orders
Inability to obtain critical goods or materials from supplies because they were required to suspend operations due to governmental orders
Governmental orders to shelter in place preventing employees from going to work
3
Recovery Start-up Program
annual gross receipts less than
$1,000,000
If you started a business after February 15, 2020, and had annual gross receipts less than $1,000,000.
How our process works
You will work directly with our in-house CPAs to:
Get a no-cost assessment to see if your business is eligible
Quickly provide preliminary ERC amounts.
Provide assistance to substantiate your credit with the IRS
Finalize the credit amounts and file needed form with the IRS
Work with the IRS to ensure your credit is received in full
In 2021, when comparing to respective Q1, Q2, and Q3 of 2019, Company A saw gross receipt reductions by 15%, 22%, and 28% respectively. Because Q3 and Q4 saw more than a 20% reduction in gross receipts, all wages paid during those quarters are considered qualified wages and will be eligible for an employee retention credit.
In 2020, Company B was a non-essential business, and received a governmental shut-down notice from March 13th to April 24th. This shutdown caused a nominal effect on the company’s ability to operate. Because of that, the wages paid during those dates, March 13th to April 24th, are qualified wages and can be used to calculate the Employee Retention Credit.
In 2020 or 2021, Company C saw no relative reduction in gross receipts when comparing to 2019 quarters. Company C was also not required by any level of government to shut down either fully or partially for any amount of time. But Company C’s primary vendor, Company D, was shut down by a governmental notice and severely delayed supplies to Company C. This had a nominal effect on Company C’s ability to serve their customers. This time frame of delay caused by Company D’s shutdown was from March 13th 2020 to February 20th 2021. All qualified wages during these time frames may be used to calculate the Employee Retention credit.
Compliance focused • Open communication with a CPA • Accurate ERC calculation
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Jeneanne Orlowski
Attorney at Law
Legal Counsel
Compliance
Jeneanne is a licensed attorney admitted to practice in Illinois and Michigan state courts, the United States District Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Michigan, and has admission pending in Texas state court. Jeneanne received a Bachelor of Arts in History and Sociology from the University of Michigan and a Juris Doctor from Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, Georgia. Jeneanne received an award as a Top 10% Oralist and the Student Writing Award for the President’s Commission on the Status of Women for her paper published at American University.
Jeneanne first practiced family law litigation at a prestigious boutique law firm in Chicago, Illinois. She later moved to Houston, Texas to work for a national tax consulting firm where she focused on Research & Development (R&D) Tax Credits and the Employee Retention Credit. During her seven-year tenure as a Senior Consultant, Jeneanne conducted over 500 R&D and Employee Retention Credit Studies and delivered over $65 million in tax credits.
Brett Slade
CPA
Managing Director
Quality Control
Brett earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Brigham Young University and a Masters in Accounting (MAcc) from the University of Nevada – Las Vegas. During his tenure as a public accountant at Eide Bailey, Brett specialized in audit services and budget analysis. Brett has significant experience with identifying risk assessments and compliance issues for clients. Brett has also served as an external Chief Financial Officer for several businesses where he helped maximize each company’s financial strength and oversaw financial planning and taxation issues.
Since April 2021, Brett has focused on mastering the Employee Retention Credit. In addition to identifying and substantiating these credits, Brett helps businesses understand the impact these credits can have on the company’s financial health.
Ashlee Hall
Attorney at Law
Legal Counsel
Governmental Orders
Ashlee is a licensed attorney admitted to practice in Oklahoma and South Carolina state courts, the United States Tax Court, and the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma. She has also been accredited to represent claimants before the Board of Veterans Appeals. Ashlee received a Bachelor of Arts in Letters and a Juris Doctor from the University of Oklahoma.
Following graduation, Ashlee co-founded the law firm Stewart & Crouch. She also served as Assistant City Attorney for the City of Tulsa. With a greater understanding of the difficulties clients face in resolving legal matters before a government entity, Ashlee joined one of the largest tax resolution law firms in the country to help clients resolve tax controversies before the IRS. Most recently, Ashlee worked at Deloitte Tax LLP. Since the eve of the CARES Act being signed into law on March 27th, 2020, Ashlee has been focused almost exclusively on the Employee Retention Credit, assisting clients claim more than $165 million in credits.
Travis Slade
CPA
Managing Director
Quality Control
Travis earned a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Brigham Young University. Following graduation, Travis worked for a national tax firm, Andersen Tax in San Francisco, California. For seven years, Travis provided accounting services for private-practice doctors at his previous firm, Thomas Doll CPAs, based in the San Francisco area.
In early 2021, Travis began extensive research into the criteria to qualify for the Employee Retention Credit. He built an efficient workflow and has trained teams to calculate and substantiate these credits. Travis has worked directly with the IRS to ensure clients receive the full credit to which they are entitled.
