When Does the ERTC Expire?

If you’re a business owner who’s been considering applying for the Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC/ERC) but hasn’t yet gotten around to doing so, you might want to take care of that task sooner rather than later. There is a deadline for the tax credit, and you’ll want to have your documentation all in order long before the dates the ERTC will expire. 

Employee Retention Tax Credit Qualifying Period 

The ERTC is a refundable tax credit for businesses that kept paying employees while either shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic or that had significant declines in gross receipts, according to the IRS. 

The Employee Retention Credit was included in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act in March 2020, and was later expanded through other legislation including the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 and the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

The ERTC is for quarterly payroll tax filings from 2020 and 2021 and is specifically available to eligible employers for wages paid from March 13, 2020, through December 31, 2021. However, only Recovery Startup Businesses are eligible for the ERTC in the fourth quarter of 2021.

When Does the Employee Retention Tax Credit Expire?

If you haven’t applied for the tax credit and are eligible to claim it, you will want to mark on your calendar exactly when the ERTC expires. 

It’s not so much that the program itself has yet to end – in fact, according to the IRS, “Most taxpayers became ineligible to claim the ERC for wages paid after September 30, 2021.” But the period in which you can still apply for the credit retroactively before two important deadlines is something business owners who haven’t applied for the ERTC yet need to be aware of. 

The ERTC deadlines for filing a claim based on your past quarterly payroll tax filings are as follows:

• For all quarters in 2020, the deadline to apply for the ERTC is April 15, 2024.
• For all quarters in 2021, the deadline is April 15, 2025.

That means time is running out for employers to apply for the Employee Retention Tax Credit and potentially get a significant refund for their business. For 2020 quarters, business owners have less than a year left to get their affairs in order and apply for the tax credit. 

How Dayes Law Firm Can Help

Dayes Law Firm and its partners can help you decide if your business should apply for the ERTC and support you in getting all of your documentation to apply together long before the ERTC expiration dates. Our team has helped an impressive list of businesses apply for more than $250 million in refunds to date, and we want to help you and your business before it’s too late, too. 

Please contact us today for a free consultation to talk through any Employee Retention Tax Credit questions you may have. Our ERTC team can discuss your options with you during a no-cost, no-obligation evaluation and get you started on applying for this crucial tax credit for your business. 

Call the ERTC team at Dayes Law Firm today or fill out the form on this page to learn more!