I know it is a bold statement to say this is the internet's only ERTC Self-Qualification Tool but I've yet to find another "calculator" that provides you real meaningful answers about whether you will qualify for these credits.
Instead, other firms are deceitful with the true purpose of their "calculators". They say "just 8 minutes filling out this form and you'll be pre-qualified."
What they should say is just 8 minutes with their form and they will know whether you are a qualified lead for them.
Name, number of employees, industry, email, phone . . . these are just the basic questions to trigger a phone call . . . and an email . . . then an SMS . . . then another phone call . . . and another email.
Before you know it you’re on a twenty minute call with a salesperson whose sole purpose is to get you to sign on the dotted line because their monthly commission depends on it (and if they seem a bit pushy and say "Yes" to every skeptical question you raise . . . its because they may be going for the daily cash bonus for the office . . . not even kidding here).
This is ridiculous! This is not the behavior of a reputable CPA Firm. And they likely are not a CPA Firm at all.
I’ve got an idea.
An idea for an entirely new ERTC experience.
One where we help you to determine for yourself whether you qualify.
Follow along with me for the next couple of pages . . .
This is a “Choose Your Own Adventure” version of ERTC consulting.
I’m going to guide you through a simple explanation of eligibility for the Employee Retention Credits, and I’m not even going to ask you for your email address. No name. No phone number.
If you want to continue working with us, then great . . . we’ll cross that bridge when we both get there.
Seem reasonable? Let’s begin . . .
Businesses with less than 500 full time employees can qualify for Employee Retention Credits by meeting one of two criteria:
Also, if your business began operations after Februrary 15, 2020, then you automatically qualify for these credits in Q3 and Q4 of 2021 and there is no other criteria required (meaning you didn't have to suffer a decline in revenue or shutdown due to mandates).
You should also know that wages paid to the majority owner and any relatives is not eligible for these credits. We know there are ERTC experts telling people they must have 5 W-2 employees, and that simply is not true. These companies just don't want to deal with small clients.
When a new client comes to our CPA Firm, we always begin by gathering their revenue for each quarter of 2019, 2020 and 2021 . . . and then we apply the math to calculate the percentage declines.
This calculation of the decline in revenue is our first choice because it's objective. The math doesn’t lie. The IRS could ask you to prove the amount of revenue you are reporting to us for each quarter (for the calculation), but that’s the extent of their review of your eligibility.
If you don’t qualify for all six quarters of the ERC program based on a decline in revenue, then we next consider how your business was impacted by governmental orders. This is where the subjectivity prescribed by the IRS can become very complex and why it is particularly important for you to work with a registered CPA Firm who can practice before the IRS.
So here’s how we’ll do this . . .
On the next page, you’ll enter your revenue for each quarter of 2019, 2020 and 2021 . . .
We’ll execute the math and tell you, definitively, which quarters you will automatically qualify - no subjective judgment required.
Depending on what you learn, you can choose your own adventure from there . . .
Click here if you are ready to enter your quarterly revenue
What all revenue should I include?
The IRS terms this as "Gross Receipts", but we will call it revenue since this is the term used by 99.9% of for-profit business. This will include total sales (net of returns and allowances) and all other amounts received for services. In addition, you should include any income from investments, and from incidental or outside sources.
It is important here that you enter your quarterly revenue based on whichever method (cash / accrual) that you file your income tax return.
We know that most small businesses don't maintain quarterly P&L's, so our cash basis clients will add the deposits from monthly bank statements to determine their quarterly gross revenue.
New Businesses
If your business started after January 1, 2019, please enter 0 into the input fields for any
quarters where you were not in business yet. This allows us to appropriately adjust our calculations
based on IRS guidance for new businesses.
You automatically qualify for Employee Retention Credits because your operations were partially suspended due to governmental orders (indoor dining restrictions).
For any other industry we would have several paths from here . . . we may need to assess additional government mandates or go back to gather your gross revenue for every quarter of 2019, 2020 and 2021.
But not for you - instead, we're ready to invite you to Schedule a Kickoff Call.
We have developed a really accurate ERTC Calculator; however, we have discovered over the past two years that it is not very accurate for our restaurant clients.
And for restaurants, our estimation is not very precise because EVERY restaurant in America with indoor dining will qualify for ERTC. However, every state/city had different dates for their indoor dining restrictions.
The reason why is because the calculator can only calculate your refunds for those quarters where you qualified due to a decline in revenue from 2019. But that isn't good enough for you.
Since you will qualify for the entire time that your indoor dining was at reduced capacity, then this qualifying period varies too much for us to bake into one calculator.
For example, restaurants in Florida were back to full capacity by September 2020, but restaurants in New York were not full capacity until June 2021.
Additionally, the credits are capped per W-2 employee . . . but many part-time employees or high staff turnover can skew the results of our calculator.
And lastly, a fast food restaurant has a different mix of compensation levels among staff, compared to a fast casual or fine dining. These varying levels of compensation add one more element of unpredictability that we are unable to capture in a one-size-fits-all calculator.
For the reasons above, I would again invite you to Schedule a Kickoff Call with our Onboarding Team.
The purpose of this call is to learn a bit more about your business – the ownership structure, number of employees, potential shutdowns – answer any questions that you have about ERTC and explain how our Firm has streamlined this process to require less than 15 minutes of your time from start to finish.
This Kickoff Call is not a sales call.
The Onboarding Team that you meet with are not commissioned salespeople. Their job is to vet you as a client because we are a registered CPA Firm. Client acceptance is a critical component of our Firm’s risk management policy.
We are transparent in our pricing (12 - 20% of your credits depending on your headcount) and we do not ask for any deposit or upfront payment. We invoice you when you get paid.
Thank you for choosing our website as your trusted ERTC resource.
An outside marketing agency would tell us “this is too long . . . no one will read it . . . you’ll scare clients away by drowning them in words.”
But we’ve learned as a Firm, that the best clients are the most well-informed clients.
I would like to personally thank you for investing your time with us today. Whether you choose to work with us or not, you are now better prepared to make an informed decision.
And, of course, I hope we have earned the opportunity to assist you in recovering these refunds.
Sincerely,
Jace W Campbell
Founder, JWC ERTC Advisory CPA LLC
P.S. Hot off the press - by now you should have a taste for the culture of our Firm, but if you know anyone else who hasn’t yet claimed ERTC . . .
Grab my newest Special Report: The Six Lies ERTC
Firms Are Using to Bilk Taxpayers
(direct
PDF link, no opt-in required).
Share it with people you like . . . they’ll thank you for it later.
Based on your Quarterly Revenue inputs, we are unable to automatically qualify you for these Employee Retention Credits. But wait, this is only the first of two criteria.
Revenue is always our first path because it is objective, math-based. However, this is an “either / or” situation.
You may still qualify based on the more subjective criteria described by the Internal Revenue Service as a “full or partial suspension of operations”.
The nuance of this criterion has created a cottage industry of ERTC “experts” encouraging clients to “check a box” and collect a refund check.
It’s dangerous. Irresponsible. The position of the IRS is that the taxpayer is always responsible. And as a registered CPA firm, it is our duty to ensure you understand these credits.
The objective of this webpage is to help you move quickly to the next stage in your exploration of ERTC. From here there are one of two paths:
Before you continue, if you have spoken with other firms who guaranteed you big refund checks, even when you know your revenue was not down 50% or 20% from 2019, you will definitely want to download our new Special Report: The Six Lies ERTC Firms Are Using to Bilk Taxpayers. There's no ask of your email address. Just a direct link to download the PDF.
Below is a video consultation. You might say it’s a Crash Course in ERTC for Business Owners. I intended on making a 10 minute video and it turned into 25 minutes because I get so fired up when explaining these credits.
But I know that even I wouldn’t want to watch a 25 minute video - I would rather skim and read to learn at my own pace.
So below this video I’ve simplified this. Read and skim at your own pace.
If you want to jump straight to a phone call with us, feel free to Schedule an ERTC Discovery Call. At the bottom of this page we talk more about what is involved with that call.
However, if you would rather learn at your own pace prior to jumping on the phone (or to save yourself a phone call), I invite you to explore the topics below.
In March 2021, the IRS released Notice 2021-20 to clarify what was intended by the criterion of a "full or partial suspension of operations".
This is the same guidance that marketing firms are referring to when they still to this day tell you “New IRS Guidance Means You Now Qualify for ERTC”.
This guidance isn’t new - that’s just a marketing gimmick.
But the content of the Notice is very prescriptive. It tells us in plain English how the IRS intends to interpret this subjective criteria.
If you want to cut through the noise and go straight to the source, you are welcome to go to Page 27 of IRS Notice 2021-20. The FAQ’s may even have an example that fits your business perfectly.
The overarching theme of the guidance is that essential businesses that were not required to close during the pandemic are still considered to be “partially suspended” when:
As you read the examples on the rest of this page, we are answering these two questions:
The industries below are ones where we believe you have a solid case for qualifying due to our past client experience.
In fact, you will likely qualify for longer than you might initially expect.
For example, many childcare providers initially tell us they were restricted to serving the children of essential workers for one or two months at the start of the pandemic. But they don’t take into consideration the other required modifications.
Many state licensing agencies required modifications to classroom sizes, teacher-kid ratios, closing entire classrooms and sending teachers home due to close contact with a COVID case, etc.
It differs by state, but we find that many childcares are more than nominally impacted well into 2021.
However, not every business in each industry below will qualify.
Remember, this is a “facts and circumstances” test. Two businesses in the same industry and regulated by the same governmental orders may have been impacted to differing degrees. Only businesses that were more than nominally impacted will qualify.
We discussed the qualifying criteria in the first section, and it really is that simple:
The best way to consider this for your business is generally with examples, so we’re bringing you examples from our own clients.
We’ll start with an easy one. Every restaurant in America with indoor dining was limited in their seating capacity. Once they no longer had a percentage restriction, many still had to space tables 6 feet apart which effectively reduced their capacity from pre-pandemic. Most of these restrictions were at the state level, but some counties and cities implemented their own, more strict, capacity limits.
Pediatricians were essential healthcare so they never shutdown. However, many state Departments of Health issued emergency orders for how doctor’s offices had to establish protocols for promoting a safe environment for patients and staff.
These protocols led to closing waiting rooms, deep cleaning requirements between patients which led to less available rooms, closure of rooms for hours if not a full day if a patient tested positive for COVID, etc. The cumulative effects of all the modifications resulted in a reduced capacity to serve patients which resulted in a more than nominal impact.
While this is a very specific niche within shipping/logistics, it highlights an important opportunity. The IRS has said that if a corporation implemented modifications across all their locations/stores, and if those modifications were a result of a governmental order in certain states or due to CDC guidelines, then that would carry the same weight as a Governmental Order, even if the order was not specific to the location of that store.
FedEx modified their process for group meetings, training employees and banning two-person crews (because two people could not socially distance in the same vehicle). These changes greatly reduced the efficiency of their operations. By gathering evidence that the number of package drops per hour was down significantly and that employees had to work overtime, plus vehicles that went down could not be repaired because part manufacturers suspended their operations . . . this cumulatively resulted in a more than nominal impact.
We hear from many insurance agencies that they had to work from home.
This is a case where we must consider whether or not working remotely creates a more than nominal impact on the business.
If someone works in an office at a computer with a phone, and clients rarely come in to see them. And in fact all work could be done remotely, even if clients do come in from time to time.
Then we must challenge whether that is truly a more than nominal impact, and usually it is not. The IRS has provided a checklist of items to think through when deciding whether working remotely is a qualifying reason.
When companies rely on travel for selling their products and services, there may be a path to qualifying, depending on their facts and circumstances.
If your sales team was unable to travel due to restrictions in jurisdictions that they frequent (such as quarantine requirements coming into New York City), but they were still able to execute comparable work through Zoom calls . . . then that was likely not a more than nominal impact on the company.
However, if your sales team attends 10 trade shows a year, and those trade shows were canceled because of restrictions on mass gatherings in San Diego, Las Vegas, Nashville, Miami, New York City, etc., then you likely have a good case for how those restrictions more than nominally impacted your business.
We would take that one step further, though, and you will need to gather evidence to demonstrate how you determined it was more than nominal.
For example, if acquired 100 new customers in 2019 and 50 of them came from these on-site trade shows, and that number effectively went to 0 in 2020/2021 during the period of restrictions on these tradeshows . . . then you have solid evidence to support your position.
We could share examples for days. And for each example, we could discuss why they could qualify, but also why they may not qualify.
This is exactly why we begin each client engagement with a Discovery Call. Not a sales call, but truly a "Discovery Call".
We're going to explain what happens on this Discovery Call at the bottom of this page, but first . . . this last example brings up an important topic . . . let’s talk about documentation.
We mentioned this earlier and we’ll touch on it again here, checking a box to say you were more than nominally impacted is not sufficient documentation for the IRS.
We see this from many ERC specialty firms who are trying to push through as many refunds as possible. They ask you to check the boxes for how you were impacted . . . and that’s the extent of their evidence gathering.
(Hint: They are going to rely on this “attestation” by you if you are audited and their contract says it is your responsibility to have this documentation - even though that is never explained to you.)
The IRS requires that you create contemporaneous documentation to support your tax positions. This means the documentation is prepared at the time that you reached your determination . . . not years later after the audit begins.
The objective of your documentation should be to explain these three points:
If you are ready to explore an engagement with our Firm and you don’t care if you are getting back $1,000 or $1 million, then I invite you to Schedule a Discovery Call with our Onboarding Team. The purpose of this call is to learn a bit more about your business – the ownership structure, number of employees, potential shutdowns – answer any questions that you have about ERTC and explain how our Firm has streamlined this process to require less than 15 minutes of your time from start to finish. This Discovery Call is not a sales call. The Onboarding Team that you meet with are not commissioned salespeople. Their job is to vet you as a client because we are a registered CPA Firm. Client acceptance is a critical component of our Firm’s risk management policy. We are transparent in our pricing (12 - 20% of your credits depending on your headcount) and we do not ask for any deposit or upfront payment. We invoice you when you get paid.
I would like to personally thank you for investing your time with us today. Whether you choose to work with us or not, you are now better prepared to make an informed decision.
And, of course, I hope we have earned the opportunity to assist you in recovering any legal refunds.
Sincerely,
Jace W Campbell
Founder, JWC ERTC Advisory CPA LLC
You automatically qualify for Employee Retention Credits for 2020. Unfortunately, you do not automatically qualify for 2021 due to not suffering a large enough decline in revenue as compared to 2019.
However, rest assured that when you engage our Firm, we will assess whether you also qualify based on the 'full or partial suspension of operations' criteria for additional quarters, including 2021.
We invite you to share your information below, but none of this information is required.
If you do share your information, we can use this on your Client Intake Form should you choose to engage us - and this will save you the time of re-entering it later.
Also, if you provide your email address, we will email your Eligibility Results for your own records. We realize this may not be at the top of your priority list right now but you may want to explore this again in a few months.
Note: None of these fields are required; however, this form can only be submitted once without having to start over again from the beginning. So if you leave any of these fields blank and return to this screen to enter your contact information later...your new information will not be transmitted (you will have to re-enter the data again from the beginning). Even if you don't want to provide your email/phone, we suggest you submit your name/business name so you can reference this data submission later and won't need to re-enter these figures again if you speak with us.
Now that we have guaranteed your eligibility for 2020 based on the quarterly revenue you reported, we have a couple of paths you can take:
Check it out here - ERTC Calculator.
This is not like the calculators you find on other websites that just take your employee count and multiple it by $26,000 per employee. Those are just marketing gimmicks.
Less than 1% of our clients receive the full $26,000 for all their W-2 employees, so that math is deceptive and breeds false hope. That’s not the client relationship we want to build, and just as importantly, we want this estimate to be meaningful for you.
If you'll take the time to enter accurate information, I can tell you that historically, the actual results our clients achieve are within the range of this calculator about 90% of the time.
If you are ready to explore an engagement with our Firm and you don’t care if you are getting back $1,000 or $1 million, then I invite you to Schedule a Kickoff Call with our Onboarding Team.
The purpose of this call is to learn a bit more about your business – the ownership structure, number of employees, potential shutdowns – answer any questions that you have about ERTC and explain how our Firm has streamlined this process to require less than 15 minutes of your time from start to finish.
This Kickoff Call is NOT a sales call.
The Onboarding Team that you meet with is not commissioned. Their role is simply to answer any questions that we have not already addressed in our marketing and educational content. Furthermore, as a registered CPA Firm, client acceptance is a critical component of our Firm’s risk management policy.
Our fee is typically 12 - 18% of your credits (depending on your headcount) and we do not ask for any deposit or upfront payment. We invoice you when you get refunded.
We know you have many choices when selecting an ERC firm and I thank you for choosing our website as your trusted ERTC resource.
I know we shared a lot of information here, but we’ve learned as a Firm, that the best clients are the most well-informed clients.
I would like to personally thank you for investing your time with us today. Whether you choose to work with us or not, you are now better prepared to make an informed decision.
And, of course, I hope we have earned the opportunity to assist you in recovering these refunds.
Sincerely,
Jace W Campbell
Founder, JWC ERTC Advisory CPA LLC
P.S. Hot off the press - by now you should have a taste for the culture of our Firm, but if you know anyone else who hasn’t yet claimed ERTC . . .
Grab my newest Special Report: The Six Lies
ERTC
Firms Are Using to Bilk Taxpayers
(direct
PDF link, no opt-in required).
Share it with people you like . . . they’ll thank you for it later.
You automatically qualify for Employee Retention Credits for 2021. Unfortunately, you do not automatically qualify for 2020 due to not suffering a large enough decline in revenue as compared to 2019.
However, rest assured that when you engage our Firm, we will assess whether you also qualify based on the 'full or partial suspension of operations' criteria for additional quarters, including 2020.
We invite you to share your information below, but none of this information is required.
If you do share your information, we can use this on your Client Intake Form should you choose to engage us - and this will save you the time of re-entering it later.
Also, if you provide your email address, we will email your Eligibility Results for your own records. We realize this may not be at the top of your priority list right now but you may want to explore this again in a few months.
Note: None of these fields are required; however, this form can only be submitted once without having to start over again from the beginning. So if you leave any of these fields blank and return to this screen to enter your contact information later...your new information will not be transmitted (you will have to re-enter the data again from the beginning). Even if you don't want to provide your email/phone, we suggest you submit your name/business name so you can reference this data submission later and won't need to re-enter these figures again if you speak with us.
Now that we have guaranteed your eligibility for 2021 based on the quarterly revenue you reported, we have a couple of paths you can take:
Check it out here - ERTC Calculator.
This is not like the calculators you find on other websites that just take your employee count and multiple it by $26,000 per employee. Those are just marketing gimmicks.
Less than 1% of our clients receive the full $26,000 for all their W-2 employees, so that math is deceptive and breeds false hope. That’s not the client relationship we want to build, and just as importantly, we want this estimate to be meaningful for you.
If you'll take the time to enter accurate information, I can tell you that historically, the actual results our clients achieve are within the range of this calculator about 90% of the time.
If you are ready to explore an engagement with our Firm and you don’t care if you are getting back $1,000 or $1 million, then I invite you to Schedule a Kickoff Call with our Onboarding Team.
The purpose of this call is to learn a bit more about your business – the ownership structure, number of employees, potential shutdowns – answer any questions that you have about ERTC and explain how our Firm has streamlined this process to require less than 15 minutes of your time from start to finish.
This Kickoff Call is NOT a sales call.
The Onboarding Team that you meet with is not commissioned. Their role is simply to answer any questions that we have not already addressed in our marketing and educational content. Furthermore, as a registered CPA Firm, client acceptance is a critical component of our Firm’s risk management policy.
Our fee is typically 12 - 18% of your credits (depending on your headcount) and we do not ask for any deposit or upfront payment. We invoice you when you get refunded.
We know you have many choices when selecting an ERC firm and I thank you for choosing our website as your trusted ERTC resource.
I know we shared a lot of information here, but we’ve learned as a Firm, that the best clients are the most well-informed clients.
I would like to personally thank you for investing your time with us today. Whether you choose to work with us or not, you are now better prepared to make an informed decision.
And, of course, I hope we have earned the opportunity to assist you in recovering these refunds.
Sincerely,
Jace W Campbell
Founder, JWC ERTC Advisory CPA LLC
P.S. Hot off the press - by now you should have a taste for the culture of our Firm, but if you know anyone else who hasn’t yet claimed ERTC . . .
Grab my newest Special Report: The Six Lies
ERTC
Firms Are Using to Bilk Taxpayers
(direct
PDF link, no opt-in required).
Share it with people you like . . . they’ll thank you for it later.
You automatically qualify for Employee Retention Credits for both 2020 and 2021.
So far we can only definitively conclude on your eligibility for certain quarters based on the decline in revenue you experience.
However, when you engage our Firm, we will also assess whether you qualify for any additional quarters based on the 'full or partial suspension of operations' criteria.
We invite you to share your information below, but none of this information is required.
If you do share your information, we can use this on your Client Intake Form should you choose to engage us - and this will save you the time of re-entering it later.
Also, if you provide your email address, we will email your Eligibility Results for your own records. We realize this may not be at the top of your priority list right now but you may want to explore this again in a few months.
Note: None of these fields are required; however, this form can only be submitted once without having to start over again from the beginning. So if you leave any of these fields blank and return to this screen to enter your contact information later...your new information will not be transmitted (you will have to re-enter the data again from the beginning). Even if you don't want to provide your email/phone, we suggest you submit your name/business name so you can reference this data submission later and won't need to re-enter these figures again if you speak with us.
Now that we have guaranteed your eligibility based on the quarterly revenue you reported, we have a couple of paths you can take:
This is not like the calculators you find on other websites that just take your employee count and multiple it by $26,000 per employee. Those are just marketing gimmicks.
Less than 1% of our clients receive the full $26,000 for all their W-2 employees, so that math is deceptive and breeds false hope. That’s not the client relationship we want to build, and just as importantly, we want this estimate to be meaningful for you.
If you'll take the time to enter accurate information, I can tell you that historically, the actual results our clients achieve are within the range of this calculator about 90% of the time.
If you are ready to explore an engagement with our Firm and you don’t care if you are getting back $1,000 or $1 million, then I invite you to Schedule a Kickoff Call with our Onboarding Team.
The purpose of this call is to learn a bit more about your business – the ownership structure, number of employees, potential shutdowns – answer any questions that you have about ERTC and explain how our Firm has streamlined this process to require less than 15 minutes of your time from start to finish.
This Kickoff Call is NOT a sales call.
The Onboarding Team that you meet with is not commissioned. Their role is simply to answer any questions that we have not already addressed in our marketing and educational content. Furthermore, as a registered CPA Firm, client acceptance is a critical component of our Firm’s risk management policy.
Our fee is typically 12 - 18% of your credits (depending on your headcount) and we do not ask for any deposit or upfront payment. We invoice you when you get refunded.
We know you have many choices when selecting an ERC firm and I thank you for choosing our website as your trusted ERTC resource.
I know we shared a lot of information here, but we’ve learned as a Firm, that the best clients are the most well-informed clients.
I would like to personally thank you for investing your time with us today. Whether you choose to work with us or not, you are now better prepared to make an informed decision.
And, of course, I hope we have earned the opportunity to assist you in recovering these refunds.
Sincerely,
Jace W Campbell
Founder, JWC ERTC Advisory CPA LLC
P.S. Hot off the press - by now you should have a taste for the culture of our Firm, but if you know anyone else who hasn’t yet claimed ERTC . . .
Grab my newest Special Report: The Six Lies
ERTC
Firms Are Using to Bilk Taxpayers
(direct
PDF link, no opt-in required).
Share it with people you like . . . they’ll thank you for it later.