This Page is Not Current
For the latest updates, see the Employee Retention Credit.
These FAQs do not reflect the changes made by the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2020 (Relief Act), enacted December 27, 2020, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP Act), enacted March 11, 2021, or the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Infrastructure Act), enacted November 15, 2021. The Relief Act amended and extended the employee retention credit (and the availability of certain advance payments of the tax credits) under section 2301 of the CARES Act for the first and second calendar quarters of 2021. The ARP Act modified and extended the employee retention credit for the third and fourth quarters of 2021. The Infrastructure Act terminated the employee retention credit for wages paid in the fourth quarter of 2021 for employers that are not recovery startup businesses.
The Employee Retention Credit under the CARES Act encourages businesses to keep employees on their payroll. The refundable tax credit is 50% of up to $10,000 in wages paid by an eligible employer whose business has been financially impacted by COVID-19.
Frequently Asked Questions
- General Information
- Determining Which Employers are Eligible to Claim the Employee Retention Credit
- Determining Which Entities are Considered a Single Employer Under the Aggregation Rules
- Determining What Types of Governmental Orders Related to COVID-19 May be Taken into Account for Purposes of the Employee Retention Credit
- Determining When an Employer’s Trade or Business Operations are Considered to be Fully or Partially Suspended Due to a Governmental Order
- Determining When an Employer is Considered to have a Significant Decline in Gross Receipts
- Determining the Maximum Amount of an Eligible Employer’s Employee Retention Credit
- Determining Qualified Wages
- Determining the Amount of Allocable Qualified Health Plan Expenses
- How to Claim the Employee Retention Credit
- Interaction with Other Credit and Relief Provisions
- Special Issues for Employees: Income and Deduction
- Special Issues for Employers: Income and Deduction
- Special Issues for Employers: Use of Third Party Payers
- Other Issues
Where can I get more information?
- Employee Retention Credit
- Coronavirus Tax Relief
- New Employer Tax Credits
- Department of Labor's COVID-19 and the American Workplace
- Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program