Beware of ERC tax credit companies

[Albert Wiersch]

Beware of ERC Tax Credit Spam Calls, Spam Texts, and Spam USPS Letters

As a small business, I've received numerous junk voice calls and texts regarding the ERC (employee retention credit) tax credit. These companies try to get you to use their services to file for the ERC tax credit. While a legitimate tax credit, it's complicated, and some of these companies may file questionable claims for the credit, taking a percentage, and leaving you to deal with the IRS when they decide to verify your claim and make sure it's properly claimed.

If the tax credit isn't properly claimed then you could wind up owing a nice chunk of change (i.e. MONEY!!!) in interest and penalties... and the ERC tax credit company will have probably long made off with their fees.

Just today I got this letter (a physical letter via USPS) from "ERC TAX CREDIT SERVICES" 21550 Oxnard St 3rd Level # 48, Woodland Hills, CA 91367. The letter raises a lot of red flags because it claims "YOU'LL QUALIFY!", "NO RISK!", that the IRS owes me, and the company has a 100% success rate. BEWARE!!! I already know that I DO NOT qualify, yet they are telling me that I do.

I have a feeling a lot of small business are falling prey to these questionable ERC tax companies.

See also: I got a $289 snail mail invoice from Domain Networks. Is it a scam?

[Lou]

I think the profits involved with this scam can be judged by the number of calls. Reviewing phone messages for a non-profit, they received a call daily - sometime two calls in cycles for several months.

[Albert Wiersch]

I think the profits involved with this scam can be judged by the number of calls. Reviewing phone messages for a non-profit, they received a call daily - sometime two calls in cycles for several months.

That sounds about right for me as well! It was ridiculous. Fortunately most of the calls and spam texts have stopped, probably due to the IRS "crackdown" (or processing pause) awhile back... although today I got the letter above in the US mail.

[Lou]

Using the USPS does open the option of mail fraud.

[Albert Wiersch]

UPDATE: "ERC Tax Credit Services" sent my business another letter which I just received today (2023-12-15). This letter looks just like the first one... so they must still be sending these letters out.