IRS has again failed Main Street with handling of pandemic-era program

Gil Bonifaz has been through a lot.

A fourth-generation restaurateur, his family restaurant has employed dozens of Texans and served delicious fajitas since 1971 at Herrera’s Tex-Mex in the heart of Texas’ 24th District. After pandemic-era restrictions reduced the restaurant’s revenue, it was unable to keep up with rising rent, accountant’s fees and medical costs from his wife’s battle with cancer.

In 2020, Gil was projected to generate $1 million in revenue, but through no fault of his own, he earned just $400,000. He was straining to keep his 15 employees on payroll, but he said his $100,000 loan he received through the Paycheck Protection Program wasn’t enough to cover the effects of the pandemic. There was no. Gill called it “a band-aid on a gunshot wound.”After waiting several months for Internal Revenue Service (IRS) payments Employee Retention Credit (ERC) Fund, Gil and his family were forced to close. In Gill’s words, “It’s safe to say that if the ERC had passed, I would still be in business.” Ironically, the ERC was created to prevent this in the first place.

Gil’s situation is very common. Many small businesses have not yet received the Employee Retention Credit relief promised for the 2020 and 2021 tax years. ERC is Designed as a lifeline For small businesses hit hard by the pandemic and subsequent government orders, eligible job creators who have kept their employees on payroll during COVID-19 will receive a portion of their payroll costs. allow you to claim a tax credit to offset the amount.

The IRS’s failure to process ERC claims not only leaves more than 1 million business owners waiting, but also delays the identification and denial of fraudulent claims. Nevertheless, 90,000 employees The IRS currently has more employees at its disposal than Customs and Border Protection or the FBI.

The recovery from the pandemic continues for mother-and-son businesses like Gill, who continued to send paychecks to their employees even when there were no customers. As champions of pro-growth policies that empower job creators, Republicans must ensure that the tax cuts promised to these entrepreneurs are ultimately realized.

Small business owners who do the right thing and keep their employees on payroll should not be punished. Similarly, we cannot allow the IRS to fail to track down fraudsters again.

As a member of the House Small Business Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee, which have jurisdiction over the IRS, I hold the IRS accountable on behalf of constituents like Gill and all small business owners who have been unfairly punished by IRS incompetence. We are working to pursue this. .

Although the store is closed for now, Gil hopes to receive funding to pay off past due rent, reopen the Herrera store and “hand the business over to the fifth generation of the Bonifaz family.”

We must not leave Gill and the other 1 million affected job creators behind. The IRS must complete the relief promised to small businesses like Gill’s nationwide, while identifying and preventing fraud.

Beth Van Duyne represents the 24th District of Texas and is a member of the Ways and Means Committee and the Small Business Committee.