IRS Issues New FAQs on Claiming the Employee Retention Credit

The IRS recently issued Notice 2021-20, which contains 71 new FAQs related to the employee retention credit (the ERT) available on qualified wages paid between March 13, 2020 and December 31, 2020. The new FAQs do not address changes to the ERT enacted as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 on qualified wages paid between January 1, 2021 and June 30, 2021, which the IRS says will be addressed in future guidance. The FAQs provide numerous, helpful examples of how to apply key definitions and other provisions applicable to the ERT, such as who is an eligible employer; what constitutes a full or partial suspension of a trade or business, a significant decline in gross receipts, qualified wages, and allocable qualified health plan expenses; and the interaction of the ERT and Paycheck Protection Program loan recipients, among other topics. For additional information on the ERT, please see our prior blog posts here, here, here, and here. Notice 2021-20 is available here