First, say thanks to the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (CAA), enacted December 27, 2020. It opened the door (retroactively and going forward) for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) participants to also claim the employee retention credit (ERC).

Reminder. Tax credits are the best. They usually reduce taxes dollar-for-dollar.

(The ERC is not quite as good as the usual tax credit because you increase taxable income by the amount of the credit. But it’s still good—very good.)

The CARES Act, enacted on March 27, 2020, created the PPP money, but it prohibited you from getting both PPP money and tax credits from the ERC; you had to choose one benefit or the other. Now, thanks to the new December law, you can have both tax-free PPP money and tax credits from the ERC.

And perhaps the best news of all comes from the IRS in its recently released, business-friendly guidance on how the rules work when you want to claim both PPP and ERC benefits.

With this knowledge, you might now claim tens of thousands of dollars in tax credits for tax year 2020 in addition to your tax-free PPP loan monies. ... Log in to view full article.