ERC stands for Employee Retention Credit, which is a refundable tax credit for businesses and tax-exempt organizations that was introduced with the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic to help businesses recover from the economic fallout that occurred. The ERC is a fully refundable tax credit that was designed to encourage employers to keep employees on their payroll. It essentially rewards companies that had employees on payroll during the pandemic and provides funding to businesses to make up for some revenue lost during the pandemic. The ERC has been amended three separate times after it was originally enacted as part of the CARES Act by the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Relief Act of 2020 (Relief Act), the American Rescue Plan (ARPA) Act of 2021 and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) . The credit from the ERC can potentially reach up to $28,000 per employee for 2021.