Press Releases

ALEXANDRIA, Va., December 11, 2024 – The National Association of Professional Employer Organizations (NAPEO) commended a coalition of lawmakers, including the Democratic leaders of the House and Senate, for urging the IRS to quickly clear its backlog of legitimate Employee Retention Credit (ERTC) claims and provide greater transparency on existing claims. 

“The IRS is late in paying small business owners the credits they earned by keeping Americans employed through the COVID-19 pandemic,” said NAPEO President and CEO Casey Clark. “We’re grateful for this call to action from the New York delegation echoing NAPEO’s push to use the additional scrutiny provided by PEOs as a means to distinguish valid claims from those attempting to defraud the government.”  

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and nine other New York Democrats sent the letter to IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel imploring the agency to expedite the processing of claims, including those from professional employer organizations (PEOs) that represent hundreds of legitimate small businesses and are already subject to additional layers of scrutiny to ensure eligibility. The coalition letter resulted from meetings between NAPEO, its members and New York small business owners and the New York congressional delegation this fall. 

The New York lawmakers join a growing chorus of both Republican and Democratic members of Congress who have written the IRS in recent weeks imploring the agency to expedite its processing of legitimate claims.  

Since the Trump administration created the ERTC program in March 2020, NAPEO has championed the cause of the thousands of small businesses that are still waiting for their much-needed ERTC funds and will continue to press the IRS until all legitimate claims are paid.