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.