The IRS refuses COVID claims, leaving small businesses in limbo

COVID-19 wreaked havoc on many of America’s small businesses, and Virginia’s 5th District was no exception. During COVID, Congress passed the Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC) which provided a tax incentive to businesses to keep their employees on the payroll during the economic devastation caused by unnecessary government-imposed lockdowns. The goal of the ERTC program was to help people keep their jobs and help small businesses stay afloat.

In September 2023, a moratorium on processing new ERTC claims was declared, to combat what the Internal Revenue Service alleged was a high number of fraudulent claims. During my tenure in Congress, I have consistently supported slashing bloated government spending and any efforts by federal agencies to stop improper payments of taxpayer dollars. But the Biden administration has demonstrated little to no concern regarding the approximately $250 billion per year in improper payments distributed by the entirety of the federal government.

Why have the Biden administration and the IRS only targeted the ERTC program, when they exhibit no other concern about the proverbial “waste, fraud, and abuse” permeating so many federal programs? Small businesses who acted in good faith, extended themselves to retain their employees, and applied for benefits they are entitled to under the law should not be given the runaround by the IRS. Sadly, over the last year many business owners across Virginia’s 5th District have reached out to my office and reported ongoing delays in the processing of properly submitted ERTC claims.

Although the IRS indicated that it would continue processing approximately 600,000 claims made before the moratorium was announced, they have only processed a tiny fraction of those claims. It has been four years since businesses were forced to close because of COVID restrictions, and there remains a backlog of 1.4 million claims.

Some business owners have waited more than a year to receive a simple status update, much less their long-overdue payment. Many small business owners have simply been left in the dark to wonder when or if their pre-moratorium claims will ever be processed, and some are struggling to continue operating as they wait for this promised relief.

In an August announcement, the IRS stated that payments for approximately 50,000 claims that were deemed “low risk” would start being paid in September. While this represents only about 4 percent of the 1.4 million claim backlog, this ]good news for these businesses and non-profits waiting on IRS action. Unfortunately, there is little evidence that even this modest objective is being reached, and most of the supposedly prioritized 50,000 claims remain unprocessed in the bureaucratic backlog. The cumulative delays and accruing interest costs have resulted in an open tab of more than $100 billion owed to eligible businesses.

In a recent letter to IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel, several colleagues and I urged the IRS to become transparent with the employers waiting for the promised payments. We requested that they provide a date by which the promised refunds to the identified low-risk ERTC claims will be issued, and a publicly available timeline and the specific criteria by which all other outstanding ERTC claims will be processed.

Taking these commonsense steps is the least the IRS can do for small businesses, which are the lifeblood of our local communities.

Bob Good represents the 5th District of Virginia.