Read this if you are an employer looking for more information on the Employee Retention Credit (ERC).
As we previously wrote, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 expanded, retroactively to March 12th, 2020, the Employee Retention Credit (ERC) to include those otherwise eligible employers who also received Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans. For those employers, wages qualifying for the ERC include wages that were not paid for with proceeds from a forgiven PPP loan.
IRS guidance released
Recently, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released guidance under Notice 2021-20 (the Notice) clarifying how eligible employers who also received a PPP loan during 2020 can retroactively claim the ERC. The Notice also formalizes and expands on prior IRS responses to FAQs and addresses changes made since the enactment of the Act; it contains 71 FAQs. The IRS has stated it will address calendar quarters in 2021 in later guidance.
Under the 2020 ERC rules, an eligible employer may receive a refundable credit equal to 50% of qualified wages and healthcare expenses (up to $10,000 of wages/health care expenses per employee in 2020) paid by a business or not-for-profit organization that experienced a full or partial suspension of their operations or a significant decline in gross receipts. For employers that received a PPP loan, Q&A 49 of the Notice outlines the IRS’ position on the interaction with the ERC for 2020.
An eligible employer can elect which wages are used to calculate the ERC and which wages are used for PPP loan forgiveness. The Notice provides for a deemed election for any qualified wages included in the amount reported as payroll costs on the PPP Loan Forgiveness Application, unless the included payroll costs exceed the amount needed for full forgiveness when considering only the entries on the application. The text of Q&A 49 appears to treat the minimum amount of payroll costs required for PPP loan forgiveness (i.e., 60%) as being the deemed election as long as there are other eligible non-payroll expenses reported on the application to account for the other 40% of loan forgiveness expenses.
Payroll costs reported on the PPP Loan Forgiveness Application: Examples
The examples make it clear the payroll costs reported on the PPP Loan Forgiveness Application and needed for loan forgiveness are generally excluded from the ERC calculations. The qualified wages included on the PPP Loan Forgiveness Application that may be included in the ERC calculations are partially impacted by the documented non-payroll expenses included in the PPP Loan Forgiveness Application. Following are a few examples from the Notice. Each example outlines the interaction between payroll costs reported on the PPP Loan Forgiveness Application and the qualified wages for the ERC.
Example #1: An employer received a PPP loan of $100,000 and has both payroll and non-payroll costs that far exceed the borrowed amount. The employer only reports payroll costs of $100,000 on the PPP Loan Forgiveness application to simplify the forgiveness process. The employer cannot use any of the $100,000 of payroll costs to claim the ERC. This is notwithstanding the fact that 100% forgiveness may have been achieved by reporting only $60,000 of payroll costs and the remaining $40,000 from non-payroll costs.
Example #2: An employer received a PPP loan of $200,000. The employer submitted a PPP Loan Forgiveness Application and reported $250,000 of qualified wages as payroll costs in support of forgiveness of the entire PPP loan. The employer is deemed to have made an election not to take into account $200,000 of the qualified wages for purposes of the ERC, which was the amount of qualified wages included in the payroll costs reported on the PPP Loan Forgiveness Application up to (but not exceeding) the minimum amount of payroll costs. The employer is not treated as making a deemed election with respect to $50,000 of the qualified wages ($250,000 reported on the PPP Loan Forgiveness Application, minus the $200,000 PPP loan amount forgiven), and it may treat that amount as qualified wages for purposes of the ERC.
Example #3: An employer received a PPP loan of $200,000. The employer is an eligible employer and paid $200,000 of qualified wages that would qualify for the employee retention credit during the second and third quarters of 2020. The employer also paid other eligible expenses of $70,000. The employer submitted a PPP Loan Forgiveness Application and reported the $200,000 of qualified wages as payroll costs, as well as the $70,000 of other eligible expenses, in support of forgiveness of the entire PPP loan. In this case, the employer is deemed to have made an election not to take into account $130,000 of qualified wages for purposes of the ERC, which was the amount of qualified wages included in the payroll costs reported on the PPP Loan Forgiveness Application up to (but not exceeding) the minimum amount of payroll costs, together with the $70,000 of other eligible expenses reported on the PPP Loan Forgiveness Application, sufficient to support the amount of the PPP loan that was forgiven. As a result, $70,000 of the qualified wages reported as payroll costs may be treated as qualified wages for purposes of the ERC.
Key takeaway:
For purposes of PPP loan forgiveness, an employer must generally submit payroll expenses equal to at least 60% of the loan amount to maximize loan forgiveness and to maximize the available wages for the ERC. If an employer does not report non-payroll costs (or limits the amount it reports) on the PPP Loan Forgiveness Application then doing so will have a direct impact on the wages available for the ERC.
An employer must also consider the payroll costs reported on the PPP Loan Forgiveness Application and the payroll costs necessary to maximize the ERC. For example, if an employer does not qualify for the ERC until the third quarter of 2020, it should consider limiting the amount of wages reported on the PPP Loan Forgiveness Application that are attributable to the third quarter in order to maximize the wages available for the ERC.
How to claim the Employee Retention Credit
An eligible employer that received a PPP loan and did not claim the ERC may file a Form 941-X, Adjusted Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return for the relevant calendar quarters in which the employer paid qualified wages, but only for qualified wages for which no deemed election was made.
Form 941-X may also be used by eligible employers who did not receive a PPP loan for 2020, but subsequently decide to claim any ERC to which they are entitled for 2020.
The deadline for filing Form 941-X is generally within three years of the date Form 941 was filed or two years from the date you paid the tax reported on Form 941, whichever is later.
For more information
If you have more questions, or have a specific question about your situation, please call us. We’re here to help.
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