ERTC Repeal Act of 2024
Latest action. Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
ERTC Repeal Act of 2024
This bill increases the penalty for aiding and abetting the understatement of tax liability with respect to the employee retention tax credit (ERTC) by a COVID-ERTC promoter, extends the time period for assessing and collecting tax attributable to the understatement, and disallows the ERTC after January 31, 2024.
Under the bill, a COVID-ERTC promoter may be liable for the greater of $200,000 ($10,000 for a natural person), or 75% of the amount derived from the aid, advice, or assistance related to a COVID-ERTC document that understates a taxpayer’s tax liability. Under current law, the penalty for knowingly aiding and abetting in the understatement of tax liability is $1,000 for an individual return or $10,000 for a corporate return.
The bill defines a COVID-ERTC promoter as any individual, trust, estate, partnership, association, company, or corporation that provides aid, assistance, or advice related to a COVID-ERTC document for a contingency fee and with gross receipts derived from providing aid, assistance, or advice related to a COVID-ERTC document exceeding a specified threshold.
A COVID-ERTC document is any return, affidavit, claim, or other document associated with a ERTC claim related to COVID.
The bill extends the time period for assessing and collecting any tax liability associated with an understatement of tax liability related to the ERTC from five to six years.
Finally, under this bill, claims for the ERTC related to COVID must be filed on or before January 31, 2024.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in Senate" stage on September 18, 2024. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on September 18, 2024: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the Senate
- Passage by the House
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 118th Congress (2023-24), 274 of the 16,565 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 1.7 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Mitt Romney (R-UT) introduced it on September 18, 2024, and 2 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They are 1 Republican, 1 independent.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on September 18, 2024, 722 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 722 days ago, on September 18, 2024.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 118th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2025 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- SenateIn committee, no floor vote yet
- HouseAwaits Senate passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers