Just like filing your taxes, filing for an ERC refund with the IRS is, inherently, free. However, also like with taxes, it's pretty complicated. In order to get the most out of your refund, you'll probably need to hire someone who can help.
And that's where the cost comes in.
If you're wise and decide to get help with your ERC refund, you should plan on paying a fee to whoever does the work for you. Luckily, most ERC companies have already set an industry standard on what this fee structure is based on when you decide to pay it.
How fees for ERC companies work
In the ERC filing industry, fees are almost always charged as a straight percentage of your total refund amount.
You can think of this as similar to how a real estate agent earns a commission on a home. Because their fee stays the same—let's say 4% as an example—no matter the size of the home they're selling, they're able to make more when they sell a million dollar home compared to a $200,000 condo.
One of the reasons realtors use this kind of fee structure is because, generally speaking, it's more work to sell a more expensive home. They usually end up putting more effort and time into the sale, so it makes sense that they'd want their payout to mirror that.
The same is true of the ERC industry. Doing the work for a larger company takes more work because there's more employee payrolls to analyze and it takes longer to do the calculations.
For us, and for many of the other ERC companies out there, keeping with a flat fee structure is the most fair way to make sure we get compensated for all that extra time and effort.
Two fee structures so you can pay when you want
To keep things simple, we offer two different payment options.
If you want to save some money, you can choose to pay us upfront, before we do any of the work and before you ever receive a dime in refunds.
The benefit of this fee structure is, obviously, that it's less expensive, so your business gets to keep a larger portion of the refund when you do get it. However, it can be difficult for businesses to pay the fee while still trying to recover from the pandemic.
Our other, more popular option is to pay a slightly higher fee after you receive your ERC check(s) from the IRS. This fee structure sort of functions like a contingency fee you'd pay for a personal injury lawyer. Basically, we don't get paid until you do.
The biggest benefit for choosing to pay this way is that you can use some of the money from your refund to make the payment.
Why the contingency-style fee is higher
The reason our contingency-style fee is higher than the upfront, retainer-style fee is actually pretty simple.
Just like you, we're a business, so waiting to get paid can make things a little harder for us, especially when you consider how much time there is between when we do the work and when we're paid.
Because of the IRS's big backlog, particularly on Form 941-X filings, it could take anywhere from several months to over a year for your check to arrive—and for you to pay us our fee.
Basically, this fee structure is slightly inconvenient for us, which is why it's a slightly higher fee. However, we like to offer it as an option because we know how difficult it is for some businesses to come up with the fee up front.
Get your fee estimate today
Here's the thing: you don't have to make the decision about which fee structure you go with right away.
We want to make sure you know exactly what you're agreeing to, which is why we provide an initial estimate. In addition to estimating your total refund amount, our service agreement will also outline all of the fee options in detail for your specific claim.
Because you'll know exactly how much you'll be charged for each option, you can pick the one that works best for your budget and needs.
But here's the real kicker.
Even though you're paying us a fee for our services, you still will end up with more money in your pocket than if you try to use a CPA or do it yourself.
That's because we are ERC experts who know how to maximize your claim so you don't leave any money on the table.
