No. The Employee Retention Credit (ERC) was a 2020-2023 pandemic-era credit claimed on Form 941, with no historical track record and a wave of enforcement actions against aggressive promoters.

The Federal Empowerment Zone Employment Credit is IRC §1396, codified by Congress in 1993, claimed on Form 8844, with 30+ years of IRS rulings, audit history, and zero ERC-style enforcement activity. Different statute, different form, different audit posture, different pedigree.

We do not provide ERC services and do not work with ERC mills.

Section 1396 of the Internal Revenue Code. A 20 percent potential federal income-tax credit on the first $15,000 of qualified wages paid to each employee who lives and works in a designated Federal Empowerment Zone (FEZ). Up to $3,000 per qualifying employee per year. 322 active FEZ tracts across 38 federally designated zones.

It is a credit against income tax, not an inherently refundable credit. It first offsets income tax owed; amending a prior-year return may generate a refund of tax previously paid. The benefit is subject to the statutory limitations and carryforward rules that apply to general business credits, and depends on your tax position.

The credit covered tax years through December 31, 2025 and is no longer available for 2026 wages. It you can still claim it for tax years 2023, 2024, and 2025 by amending those returns. The window closes about three years after each return's original due date (April 2027 for 2023 wages, April 2028 for 2024, April 2029 for 2025).

For additional context, see this overview of Federal Empowerment Zone tax credit services from a top-tier global accounting firm.

The check needs no names, no payroll, and no account numbers, only addresses, which you may label with your own pseudo-IDs (for example “E-1”). Your browser loads the FEZ polygon file, sends each address to a third-party geocoding service (Photon, with the U.S. Census Bureau geocoder as a best-effort fallback) to convert it to coordinates, and then runs the point-in-polygon eligibility test locally in your browser.

Addresses are transmitted to those third-party geocoding services solely for eligibility screening and are not retained by the program during the browser check. The only data that could reach a program server is the count of qualifying pseudo-IDs, and only if you choose to proceed. Note that addresses are personal data: they are shared with the geocoding provider under that provider's own terms.

CTBC Bank (USA) brings this program to you and stands behind the introduction, but the work and the agreements sit with the specialists. Eligibility screening and data preparation are handled by VentoKredit, the program operator. The independent tax opinion, the document that makes the credit defensible and financeable, is prepared by a top-tier global accounting firm engaged directly with you. Your service agreement is with VentoKredit (as prime) and the accounting firm; CTBC is not a party to it.

A top-tier global accounting firm under retainer. The firm runs a Federal Empowerment Zone calculation engine and writes an independent tax opinion on each engagement. The opinion satisfies FIN 48 / ASC 740 recognition and gives your auditors comfort under audit-defense scenarios.

The IRS typically takes 12 to 24 months to process amended-return refund claims. Some customers choose to get paid sooner by selling the refund to an outside buyer. The program produces the proof documentation and an independent tax opinion that any such buyer needs to evaluate the asset. We do not broker, refer, or facilitate the sale; the customer engages directly with a buyer of their choice.

We prepare a structured proof file built to the same standard the IRS and your auditors would expect. You decide whether to file directly with the IRS and wait, sell the receivable to an outside buyer, or pursue tax-credit insurance through a carrier of your choice. For clients who request it, we will prepare the insurance-underwriting documentation any A-rated tax-credit insurance carrier would need. We don't sell or broker insurance. It's an opt-in path the client initiates if they want coverage on IRS denial.

A tiered Engagement Fee at Order signing, scaled to your expected refund. The Engagement Fee is a prepayment that gets credited against the Processing Fee, which is a percentage of the certified gross FEZ credit plus the same percentage of any interest the IRS pays in connection with that credit. Total customer cost is the Processing Fee.

Tax opinion authoring fee is billed separately by the accounting firm. Optional tax insurance is paid by you directly to the carrier. If you choose to sell the certified refund as an asset to a third-party buyer, the purchase terms are between you and the buyer.

Specific pricing is shared during intake review, after we’ve confirmed eligibility. Book a 15-min call for a quote.

We are §1396 specialists, not generalists, and we are built around the mid-market tier where the boutiques charge enterprise rates and the ERC mills do not specialize. Our retainer relationship with a top-tier global accounting firm gives us top-tier audit-ready proof at mid-market economics.