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Do you know if your business is eligible for government aid? Helping You Get the Government Aid You Deserve: An Interview with Yoni Klestzick from Employee.Credit Covid-19 was a tornado that left a lot of collateral damage in its wake. On the financial end, small business owners were hit particularly hard from the endless lockdowns, interrupted supply chains, and more. While the federal government pledged and is providing assistance to assist hard-hit businesses, the legalities of who is eligible for this aid can be confusing. The result is that many businesses are losing out on tens of thousands of dollars because they don’t know to apply for it. Seeing this wide-spread confusion, a team of lawyers and accountants came together to form Employee.Credit, a company which assists small businesses in determining their eligibility and applying for the credit. Yoni Klestzick, a managing partner at Employee.Credit, tells us here about what Employee.Credit does and how it can help you. What kind of aid is the government currently offering businesses? During the pandemic, many businesses were shut down, had to modify their day-to-day operations and incurred financial losses. In order to compensate the vast majority of small businesses for their financial loss, and in effort to boost the then staggering economy with liquidity, the government passed the CARES act, which in part, gave businesses a new credit (the Employee Retention Credit “ERC”) if they experienced a reduction in revenue, were forced to close down, or if they were a new business after February 15, 2020, and still retained their employees on payroll. Originally, the maximum value of this credit was $500,000, however, an amendment to the CARES Act changed that and now its maximum is in the tens of millions of dollars. So, we’re talking a huge amount of potential savings. What type of service do you offer? We help small businesses determine if they’re eligible for the credit. Larger businesses may have an in-house legal and accounting team to deal with such things; we find that it’s the small businesses, or some large ones whose team have not mastered the intricacies of the ERC, who are often unaware of the federal assistance out there. We’re here to help them get what’s coming to them by first determining whether or not they’re eligible and, if they are, helping them apply for the maximal credit possible. While we opened in early 2021, our business really took off about 8 months ago. We work out our fee structure so that we only receive payment if we determine that the business is eligible for the credit. This way, it’s a win-win for everyone. What types of businesses do you recommend checking to see if they’re eligible? Any business with under 500 employees should certainly be checking. The government is specifically looking to help small businesses right now. Remember this can mean a store with ten employees, or a yeshiva with 200 employees. What makes your company unique? We offer our clients expertise from both sides – the accounting side and the legal one. In addition, after examining a business’s eligibility, we provide the client with a detailed case study where we detail our reasoning for why or why not they are eligible. Does your company have future plans for growth? While right now our expertise is in the Employee Retention Credit, we see this as the launch of a long-term business that will be able to facilitate many of the existing federal and state credits available for small and large businesses. Tell us about your experience as an exhibitor at the recent OJBA expo. The OJBA was a natural place for us to be, as it attracts so many small businesses. It was a great networking opportunity for us, and we were already able to help some of those businesses get their Employee Retention Credit. We’re definitely happy we went!
