NEW YORK (AP) — The Internal Revenue Service said Thursday a review of 1 million claims for the Employee Retention Credit representing $86 billion shows the “vast majority” are at risk of being improper.
The ERC was designed to help businesses retain employees during pandemic-era shutdowns, but it quickly became a magnet for fraud. Its complex eligibility rules allowed scammers to target small businesses, offering help applying for the ERC for a fee — even if they didn’t qualify.
About 10% to 20% of the 1 million claims show “clear signs of being erroneous” and tens of thousands of those will be denied in coming weeks, the IRS said. Another 60% to 70% show an “unacceptable risk” of being improper and will be further evaluated.
“The completion of this review provided the IRS with new insight into risky Employee Retention Credit activity and confirmed widespread concerns about a large number of improper claims,” said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel. “We will now use this information to deny billions of dollars in clearly improper claims and begin additional work to issue payments to help taxpayers without any red flags on their claims.”
