In a lot of ways, for a lot of businesses, COVID is best left behind. It represented one of the most challenging times. Employees couldn’t work, patrons couldn’t purchase, and countless spaces went unused. There were some changes that remain today. Remote work, for example, is far more popular and can be great for some workers. Yet it’s not hard to say a lot of what the pandemic offered was negative.
The government then, in response, created a lot of positive programs. Efforts made to keep businesses afloat like loans, programs, and credits. The Employee Retention Credit was exactly one of these. The program was aimed at rewarding employers who could keep employees paid. It was especially targeted at those who paid their employees who couldn’t manage to work.
In terms of what the program was targeted at, it ran its course. The pandemic is effectively over, things have returned to normal, the program even ended in 2021. Yet there are many businesses that qualify for the funding offered by the program, even today. Not all businesses apply. Conditions like having suffered revenue loss, government shutdowns, or being a specific organization are necessary to qualify.
Yet for those that do, there are tens of thousands available, per employee, even today. The best part is all that it takes to utilize is a simple tax amendment. Of course, this can take anywhere from four to 10 months to be processed. Yet one thing is clear, businesses have a lot to gain, and most don’t even know it. Making it through the pandemic as a small business, especially while maintaining employees, was hard. If there was ever a program that businesses deserve to take advantage of, this is it.
