Since the pandemic of COVID-19 began I have been getting a tremendous amount of questions about the different tax credits and how those tax credits relate to the Form 941. Although I posted 
quite a few blog items concerning these credits I thought what I might do now is go through the different FAQs that are on the IRS website and take a closer look at specific information the IRS has provided. Over the next several blogs I will pick one or two of the FAQs and discuss them and how they affect payroll and/or the 941 form. I am not going to be covering them in numerical order but rather picking the ones that I think are the most relevant to the questions I have been receiving. I will give the FAQ number and under what topic they can be found, as well as the link if you want more information. One bad thing about the FAQs on this website is if they do jump around quite a bit. You start off at question four and then must wander off to question 44 to get the remainder of the answer. So, what I am going to try to do is put it all in one place. Today’s blog gets us started with our first question.
Under the IRS topic Covid-19-Related Tax Credits: General Information FAQs. FAQ number 4 deals with documentation. The question reads:
What documentation must an eligible employer retain to substantiate eligibility to claim the tax credits?
In this case the question is asking about the tax credits under the paid family leave and paid sick leave along with the allocable qualified health plan expenses and the eligible employer share of Medicare taxes. In answering this question, the IRS is not giving us any specifics when it comes to the type of records that we need to maintain. They simply list the normal records that we would maintain in a payroll department including Form 941. However, they do refer to another FAQ, specifically number 44 under the IRS Topic Covid-19-Related Tax Credits: How To Substantiate Eligibility And Periods Of Time For Which Credits Are Available FAQs. But to truly answer the question we not only need number 44 but also number 45 and number 46 under this topic.
Number 44 reads: what information should an eligible employer received from an employee and maintain to substantiate eligibility for the sick leave our family leave credits? The answer provided is as follows: An Eligible Employer will substantiate eligibility for the sick leave or family leave credits if the employer receives a written request for such leave from the employee in which the employee provides:
- The employee’s name
- The date or dates for which leave is requested
- A statement of the COVID-19 related reason the employee is requesting leave and written support for such reason
- A statement that the employee is unable to work, including by means of telework, for such reason.
In the case of a leave request based on a quarantine order or self-quarantine advice, the statement from the employee should include the name of the governmental entity ordering quarantine or the name of the health care professional advising self-quarantine, and, if the person subject to quarantine or advised to self-quarantine is not the employee, that person’s name and relation to the employee.
In the case of a leave request based on a school closing or child care provider unavailability, the statement from the employee should include the name and age of the child (or children) to be cared 
for, the name of the school that has closed or place of care that is unavailable, and a representation that no other person will be providing care for the child during the period for which the employee is receiving family medical leave and, with respect to the employee’s inability to work or telework because of a need to provide care for a child older than fourteen during daylight hours, a statement that special circumstances exist requiring the employee to provide care.
But that still does not tell us exactly what that documentation should look like. That is addressed in question number 45, which reads: what additional records should an eligible employer maintained to substantiate eligibility for the sick leave or family leave credit? This answer gets down to the actual documentation from the payroll system. The employer would need to create and maintain records that include the documentation to show how the employer determine the amount of qualified second family leave wages paid to employees are eligible for the credit, including records of work, telework and qualified sick leave and qualified family leave. The documentation should also show how the employer determine the amount of qualified health plan expenses that the employer allocated to those wages. This of course is in addition to the completed 941 form and any copies of Form 7200. These records could come from your payroll system directly via a report, or if that is not possible, an Excel spreadsheet.
Finally question number 46 deals with record retention time limits. Covid-19 related records fall under the same category as all other employment tax records. This is basically four years plus current.
Agriculture
Manufacturing and Construction
Food Service, Hospitality, and Retail
Health Care and Emergency Responders
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has issued three new opinion letters that address compliance issues related to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). As a reminder to my readers, an opinion letter is an official, written opinion by the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) on how a particular law applies in specific circumstances presented by the employer that requested the letter. The current group of letters issued include:
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The passage of the Families First and Cares Acts have caused massive changes to IRS Form 941 that affect the final three quarters in 2020! 16 new lines now appear on this form along with changes to two others! Are you ready to meet these changes and handle them correctly? Join me on Thurs., May 28th at 10 am Pacific as I examine the Form 941–COVID-19 edition in depth. Use coupon code cjyfrqa6 at checkout for a 10% discount.
In news for tax professionals and small businesses, the IRS has advised those who are beginning to deal with Form 7200, Advance Payment of Employer Credits Due to COVID-19 to do so carefully to avoid making error when completing the new form. Mistakes in completing the form can lead to processing delays, which in turn delays the IRS approving the credits.
However, the IRS has noted some common errors or mistakes in filling out the form, slowing the process. The errors to avoid include:
the employee works 50 hours, including 4 hours for which the employee receives the nightshift premium, the employee’s straight time pay is $523 ($491 salary plus $32 nightshift premium), and the regular rate is $10.46. The employer need only pay an additional $5.23, half time the regular rate, for each of the 10 overtime hours, for a total of $52.30. The payment of the $8 nightshift premium is reflected in this fluctuating workweek method computation. The fluctuating workweek method therefore correctly computes overtime pay owed under the FLSA when an employee receives a fixed salary and hours based premiums that compensate him or her for all hours worked.
commissions that comprise more than half the employee’s compensation for a representative period. Some establishments on the withdrawn non-retail list may have been deterred from availing themselves of the exemption and its compensation flexibilities. If establishments on the withdrawn non-retail list now qualify for the exemption, they have added flexibility regarding commission-based pay arrangements with their workers. For these employers and workers, they could consider whether, for instance, more commission-based pay is sensible.