Thread by @XavierHelgesen

Hey startups/SMBs - did you know the government may be willing to pay $28,000 PER EMPLOYEE of your payroll in 2021?

I did a deep dive on the very confusing Employee Retention Tax Credit for our own businesses.

My obsessiveness is your shortcut.

Here’s your cheat sheet. 👇🏻

You can be eligible if you fit into 1 of 3 categories:

A. had a revenue decline quarter over quarter from 2019 to 2021 of greater than 20%

B. Are a startup.

C. Had your business suspended by a government order.

Rules have changed 3-4 times. Some articles are out of date.

If you are eligible, you can claim a refund of 70% of the first $10,000 in wages and benefits paid for EACH employee each quarter. (As long as you are under 500 employees)

50 employees would be $350,000 per quarter, for example.

They do not need to be full time.

If you are a startup, you can claim up to $50k per quarter in Q3 and Q4. You just have to:

A. Be started after Feb 15 2020
B. Be under $1 million in revenue.

You can google “recovery startup business ERTC” for more.

I spent the most time on the “revenue decline” qualification. You CAN include revenue from an acquired business.

You must qualify quarter by quarter BUT you can use the previous or current quarter.

So if you had a 20% decline in Q2, you are eligible in Q3 as well.

You also want to look at Q4 2018 VS Q4 2020. This can be used for Q1 qualification.

If you own more than one business, you must look at them as a group. There are some rules you can google on how it is determined whether businesses can be considered a group.

If you are eligible, it is shockingly easy to claim. Just notify your payroll provider (Rippling, etc) or file on your 941.

You can file amended 941’s to get the credit for previous quarters refunded.

Let me know if this was helpful!