If you are hiring an employee, you need a W-2 tax form. A W-2 is a tax form where businesses report annual compensation paid to their employees and the payroll taxes withheld from that compensation. Employees who receive a W-2 are paid through their employer’s payroll and have their payroll taxes withheld throughout the year.
The Employee Retention tax Credit (ERC) is the largest government stimulus program in history. Find out if your business is eligible to receive a grant of up to $26,000 per employee!
The ERC was not widely used until March 2021, when updated IRS regulations made this type of COVID-19 Relief more accessible. In short: thousands of businesses who once picked between the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and ERC can now probably use both stimulus programs, by amending their quarterly Form(s) 941 payroll returns.

The ERC is available to any employer—including non-profits, regardless of size—that has experienced either a full or partial shutdown of operations due to a governmental order related to COVID-19, or has experienced a significant decline in gross receipts. A “significant decline in gross receipts” is defined as a decrease of more than 50% when comparing quarterly 2020 receipts to 2019 receipts. Employers who are part of an affiliated group are only eligible if they meet the above criteria AND the group as a whole has suffered either a shutdown of operations OR a significant decline in gross receipts. For example, if two companies are part of the same parent company and only one company meets the eligibility criteria, the entire group is not eligible for the credit.