IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said now that the agency has cleared a backlog of ERC claims, it is intensifying compliance work and adding procedures to deal with program fraud.

“The further we get from the pandemic, we believe the percentage of legitimate claims coming in is declining,” Werfel told attendees at the IRS Nationwide Tax Forum in Atlanta, Ga.

The IRS has increased audit and criminal investigation work on the claims, along with watching the promoters making those claims. The period for eligibility for the credit is between March 13, 2020, and Dec. 31, 2021. Businesses can continue to file claims for the credit under April 15, 2025.

Two million five hundred thousand claims have been filed with processing slowed by the complexity of amended returns.  The IRS says that with its efforts to clear the backlog have made substantial progress with 99 percent of claims about three months old as of mid-July.

Bob Scott

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Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards.  Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He  has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that.  A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind