Last Day to File for Refund of Paid Leave and Employee Retention Tax Credits
The March 2020 CARES Act allows employers to reduce their quarterly federal employment tax deposit obligations in certain situations. For example, if an employer is entitled to a credit of $5,000 for (a) qualified sick leave wages, (b) certain related health plan expenses, and (c) the employer’s share of Medicare tax on the leave wages, and if the employer is otherwise required to deposit $8,000 in employment taxes, the employer could reduce its federal employment tax deposits by $5,000. The employer would only be required to deposit the remaining $3,000 on its next regular deposit date. As another example, if an employer is entitled to an employee retention credit of $10,000 and was required to deposit $8,000 in employment taxes, the employer could retain the entire $8,000 of taxes as a portion of the refundable tax credit it is entitled to and file a request for an advance payment for the remaining $2,000 using Form 7200.