Under the CARES Act, the Employee Retention Credit (ERC) is a tax credit that can be fully refunded. For the 2020 program, eligible employers can claim a credit equal to 50% of qualified wages paid to employees, between 3/12/2020 and 1/1/2021. However, the maximum amount of wages taken into account for each employee for all calendar quarters is $10,000, meaning the maximum credit for an employee in 2020 is $5,000. For the 2021 program, the credit percentage is increased to 70% of the first $10,000 per quarter for the first three quarters of the year. This raises the annual maximum credit for an employee in 2021 to $21,000.