Fitness

Your business may be eligible for the ERC if its operations were fully or partially suspended by governmental COVID-19 orders, thereby limiting commerce, travel or group meetings. You might also be eligible if your business experienced a significant decline in gross receipts during 2020 or within the first three quarters of 2021. New startup businesses that began operations after February 15, 2020, may also qualify, regardless of revenue.

There are two main ways to be eligible for stimulus refunds:

• If your business matches the required decline in revenue within any quarter of 2020 or 2021.
• If you have W-2 employees.

For 2020, the ERC is a credit against certain payroll taxes of 50 percent of the wages you paid — up to $10k per employee — from March 12 – December 31, 2020 (capped at $5k per employee).

For 2021, the ERC is a quarterly tax credit of 70 percent of the first $10,000 in wages per employee in each quarter of 2021 from January to September 2021 (capped at $7K per employee per quarter).

The Employee Retention Credit expired in September 2021. But, qualified businesses, companies and employers can still file paperwork and retroactively receive claims for the ERC in 2023. How” By filing a Form 941-X for relevant quarters. 

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

We have a list of state-specific COVID-19 orders on the Insights page of our website. Just click on your state to see the applicable orders and restrictions.

As an employer in the fitness industry, you must first determine your eligibility, starting by ensuring you meet IRS qualifications. To retroactively claim the ERC, amend previously submitted Forms 941 by filing and submitting Form 941-X for each qualifying quarter.

Are you unsure about how to file a Form 941-X amendment for the Employee Retention Tax Credit? Do you need assistance preparing and submitting your application? If so, reach out to one of the experienced tax professionals here at StenTam. We’ll not only guide you through the process but also ensure you get all the credit for which you’re due, all while maintaining compliance and minimizing risk.

To qualify for ERC, you need to have been subject to a qualifying government order related to COVID-19 that caused a full or partial suspension of your trade or business operations. The government order may be at the local, state, or federal level.

Examples of governmental orders:

• An order from the city’s mayor stating that all non-essential businesses must close for a specified time period;
• A state’s emergency proclamation that residents must shelter in place for a specified period, except for essential workers;
• An order from a local official imposing a curfew on residents that impacts the operating hours of your trade or business for a specified time period;
• An order from a local health department mandating a workplace closure for cleaning and disinfecting.

No. To qualify for the ERC, you must have been subject to a government order that fully or partially suspended your trade or business.
Recommendations or statements encouraging you to take certain actions are not orders.
If you use a third party to calculate or claim your ERC, you should ask them to give you a copy of the government orders – not a generic narrative about an order. Read the order carefully and make sure it applied to your business or organization.

No. You need to demonstrate that the government order was related to COVID-19 and that it resulted in your trade or business being fully or partially suspended.

Whether your business or organization was fully or partially suspended depends on your specific situation. For examples, see Notice 2021-20, Part III, Section D.

Some examples of who doesn’t qualify under this eligibility factor:

• If all your employees were able to telework during the pandemic and your business continued to operate, your business wasn’t suspended.
• If your customers were affected by a stay-at-home order, but no orders applied to your business operations, you weren’t suspended.
• If you voluntarily closed your business or reduced hours of operation, you weren’t ordered to suspend.

You could still qualify for ERC based on a decline in gross receipts even if you don’t qualify under suspension of operations due to government order.

A supply chain issue, by itself, does not qualify you for the ERC.

The IRS provided a narrow, limited exception if an employer was not fully or partially suspended but their supplier was. However, it applied only when the employer absolutely could not operate without the supplier’s product and the supplier was fully or partially suspended themselves.

In addition to having the supplier’s governmental order, you will need to show that:

• The government order caused the supplier to suspend operations,
• You couldn’t obtain the supplier’s goods or materials elsewhere (regardless of cost), and
• It caused a full or partial suspension of your business operations.