Okay, welcome to the ERC Podcast. This is a really interesting episode because it answers a very frequently asked question that we get here all the time. And that is, how long am I going to have to wait before my ERC gets funded? And that question is getting a little clearer, or the answer is getting a little clearer. Now I'm reading straight out of the volume 97, number 20 of the Kiplinger Tax letter. That's the letter I get monthly and concerning business taxes. And they ran a little article here that the IRS still has a large batch of unprocessed forms 941X and that's the form that you filed to get the employee retention credit. Now they're saying there's 199,000 of them as of September the 21st of 2022. Many of these quarterly payroll tax returns were filed by employers to amend their original filings to claim temporary covid breaks, such as the sick and family leave credit and the employee retention tax credit.
The IRS is, however, making a dent on these returns. As of February the first, there were over 447,000. So roughly, let's do the math here. It's roughly October the seventh now, and they're saying that this was as of September the 21st. There's 199,000 of them, and as of February 1st, there were 447,000 of them. So there's been 248,000 of them done in roughly eight months of their findings here. So they're banging out roughly 31,000 of these per month, roughly with 248,000 left at this point, that would be just a little over, almost six and a half months left. So that gives some indication if all things were going as they have been going, we're looking at six and a half months roughly to knock out the ones that are in the queue at the moment, which would put us in roughly in the middle of March. So if you were in the queue, you should be technically ready for your ERC in about six and a half months, which is, you know, it's close to what we were saying, six to nine months typically. And I think that's still a good indicator, but it's good to see the progress here.
They're also saying in this letter, now we know why though there is such a long processing delay. The service didn't start working on these claims for the credits until 12 months after the legislation granting the tax breaks was enacted. According to treasury inspectors, a lack of updated computer programming, guidance, and training all contributed to the delay. That's very much in line with what I have read concerning audits of ERC’s. They're finding that, that this was released, you know, back in the same time that Paycheck Protection Program was in that first quarter of 2020. And they're saying that that didn't even, they didn't even really start making any progress on this until about that time in 2021. So not surprisingly, it, it's really only been going about a year and a half as far as them processing things.
So, in other words, there's plenty of time here. The IRS, though, is starting to make a dent, which is great, and we're going to start seeing more of these ERCs coming in. Of course the, the IRS is still behind on things and they're getting more and more trained to handle these things, but it looks like help is coming. They're, they're starting to make some headway. All right. If you need help on your ERC or if you've got further questions, log on to Travis Watkins Tax going to the ERC tab there. We'll get you some information about that. Got some frequently asked questions. More of those and keep listening to this podcast becuase we are finding out more and more about this in real time and I'll keep you up to date. Thanks for listening.