Providers’ Council President and CEO Michael Weekes and Massachusetts Nonprofit Network (MNN) CEO Jim Klocke sent a letter to Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Monday urging her to push for the restoration, extension, and improvement of the Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC) in the Senate’s version of the Build Back Better Act.
To read the full letter, click here.
By signing his $1 trillion infrastructure deal into law on Nov. 15, President Biden retroactively terminated the ERTC program in the fourth quarter of 2021, which provided nonprofits and other employers refundable payroll tax credits for keeping staff employed.
The ERTC was created in March 2020 to encourage businesses to keep employees on payroll. It had been set to expire on Jan. 1, 2022, but the infrastructure bill accelerated the end of the credit retroactively to Oct. 1.
Weekes and Klocke told Warren that many nonprofits have counted on fourth quarter access to the ERTC to support the financial commitment they have made to retain workers on the payroll and assure adequate operating capacity to serve their communities.
“It is certain that the ERTC helped hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of nonprofits in the Commonwealth retain staff that they otherwise would have had to lay off,” they wrote. “We believe that restoring the ERTC and extending it into 2022 for charitable nonprofits, and adjusting the definition of ‘gross receipts’ to more realistically reflect how these organizations operate, would ensure that charitable organizations continue to meet the challenges that Massachusettsans will face well after the pandemic is finally beaten.”
Weekes and Klocke sent a similar letter supporting the ERTC to the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee in September.
The Providers’ Council and MNN collectively represent more than 800 nonprofits in the Commonwealth. Our members reflect the breadth of the Massachusetts nonprofit community, from arts and cultural organizations and environmental groups to faith-based charities, essential human service providers, and more.
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