Contingency Fee Providers
IRS issues renewed call to not work with "contingency fee" ERTC providers, those that charge a percentage of your refund
The IRS continues to renew alerts for businesses to watch out for predatory ERTC(also knows as ERC) providers. In the following notice the IRS has once again warned businesses to not work with any provider that is charging a fee based on a percentage of the refund amount of Employee Retention Tax Credit claimed. This is a similar warning sign for average taxpayers, who should always avoid a tax preparer basing their fee on the size of the refund.
The IRS has also given some further guidance of other warning signs of aggressive ERTC providers:
- Providers that use unsolicited calls or advertisements mentioned an “easy application process.
- Statements that the promoter or company determine ERTC eligibility within minutes.
- Large upfront fees prior to any calculations or forms being completed.
- Aggressive claims from the provider that the business receiving the solicitation qualifies before any discussion of the group’s tax situation.
Some of the examples given for ways to determine if your ERTC provider is doing a diligent job in calculating your ERTC refund:
- Taking into consideration factors such as payroll used in forgiveness of your PPP loan.
- Investigating specifics of the business such as ownership percentage, related owners and employees related to owners.
- Providing documentation of qualification by referencing the source of a government mandate when qualification is due to partial or full suspension of operations. Or providing documentation of qualification based on decrease in gross receipts or being a recovery startup business.
- Providing a breakdown of eligible wages and eligible medical used in calculation of your ERTC refund.
We at ERTCFiling are proud to NEVER base our fees on the amount of refund our clients get. We charge a flat rate fee that only changes if the employer has a larger employer count. Our practices follow the IRS suggested practices. This is the reason, we believe, that we have had a 100% success rate with all of the audits our clients have faced.