The COVID Project

The record of what government ordered.

The Library holds the orders that limited commerce, travel and group meetings across the United States from March 2020 through September 30, 2021, each with its issuer, its dates, its operative words and its source. It also holds the law that makes those orders the test for the Employee Retention Credit, read as Congress wrote it.

Search the Library Build your record Read the fourteen grounds

13,511instruments indexedorders, standing duties, organizer notices and legal authorities

51States and the Districtthe fifty States and the District of Columbia

40metropolitan areascounties, cities and health authorities inside them

27industrieseach with its own analysis of how the orders reached it

99.4%of small employersof U.S. employer firms under 500 employees fall within the industries analyzed (Census Bureau, SUSB 2019)

Counts are what The COVID Project has retrieved, verified and indexed. They are not a count of every order that existed.

The sentence

The sentence the letters use, set beside the record.

The fourteen grounds →

There were no government orders related to COVID-19 in effect during the quarter which could have fully or partially suspended your trade or business.
The form sentence of the Service's letters, answered from the public record on the first ground

On July 1, 2021 these instruments were in force in Texas.

StateDay

53 orders of Texas authorities (State, county, city and court) were in force on July 1, 2021. Nationwide, such orders were in force in 51 of the 51 States and the District.

Ex. AGY-ST-CORRECTIONS-EMA-GUARD-067 TDCJ Connections, 'Visitation to resume in August' (July 2021) Texas Department of Criminal Justice, July 1, 2021
Ex. MET-HOU-075 Fort Bend County 'Government Orders' index, page 1 (captured June 16, 2021) Fort Bend County (coronavirus.fortbendcountytx.gov), June 16, 2021
Ex. TX-032 Senate Bill 968 (Act of June 16, 2021), § 161.0085 'COVID-19 Vaccine Passports Prohibited' Texas Legislature (87th Leg., R.S.), Senate Bill 968, signed by Governor Abbott, June 16, 2021
Ex. TX-034 House Bill 1239 (Act of June 16, 2021): prohibited closure of places of worship Texas Legislature (87th Leg., R.S.), House Bill 1239, signed by Governor Abbott, June 16, 2021
Ex. ECO-C-069 Misc. Docket No. 21-9060, Thirty-Eighth Emergency Order Regarding the COVID-19 State of Disaster Supreme Court of Texas, May 26, 2021

The federal layer and the standing duties are counted separately. Every Texas instrument · This day on the Orders Clock

The Orders Clock

Every day of the six quarters, on the map.

Open the Orders Clock →

Orders in force:none indexed7–1415–2223–2930–4346–105

One day of the recordJanuary 4, 2021

1,616 orders of State, county, city and court authorities in force

51 of the 51 States and the District with at least one in force

The winter of the second shutdown, as the Library records it: every State, county, city and court order in force on this day, counted by State. Darker States held more. On the Orders Clock you move the day and watch the orders arrive, change shape and end.

Standing duties and the federal layer are counted separately.

Open the Orders Clock The States

The six quarters

What was in force, quarter by quarter

All six quarters →

2020Q2Second quarter of 2020Apr. 1 – June 30, 2020 (orders from Mar. 13)From the middle of March through June 2020 every State, the District of Columbia and the federal government had orders in force that closed business premises, sent…2020Q3Third quarter of 2020July 1 – Sept. 30, 2020The summer of 2020 was not a return to normal.2020Q4Fourth quarter of 2020Oct. 1 – Dec. 31, 2020The winter of 2020 brought the second shutdown.2021Q1First quarter of 2021Jan. 1 – Mar. 31, 2021The first quarter of 2021 opened under every winter order and ended with a third of the country still capped.2021Q2Second quarter of 2021Apr. 1 – June 30, 2021The second quarter of 2021 was the quarter the general orders ended, and they ended late, on dates the orders themselves fixed.2021Q3Third quarter of 2021July 1 – Sept. 30, 2021The third quarter of 2021 is the quarter the IRS's letters most often describe as one without orders.

The industries

How the orders reached your kind of business

All twenty-seven industries →

Each industry page follows the same method: the order, the function of the business it reached, the change it compelled, the quarter, and the statute's answer. To apply it to your own State, metro and quarters, build your record.

In the Government's own words

What the United States told a federal court about the Notice

Every position, pinned →

But Notice 2021-20 is merely guidance issued so that the public can have the benefit of knowing how the IRS is interpreting the relevant ERC statutory provisions. The Notice . . . lacks the force of law.
United States (DOJ Tax Division), Doc. 44 at 19 (in context)

Effectively, this is a safe harbor; taxpayers whose gross receipts or hours have been impacted at that level can rely on the IRS not denying their ERC claim on that basis. Properly understood, it isn't an eligibility requirement.
United States (DOJ Tax Division), Doc. 44 at 14 (in context)

Whether Notice 2021-20 exists or not, the statute will control whether a refund is warranted.
United States (DOJ Tax Division), Doc. 44 at 24 (in context)

From the analysis

Sentences the record supports

Start with the story →

On every day from March 13, 2020 through September 30, 2021, every employer in the United States operated under orders from appropriate governmental authorities limiting commerce, travel or group meetings due to COVID-19.
A Nation Under Orders →
For the third quarter of 2021 the sentence is factually incorrect for every one of the quarter’s ninety-two days.
The third quarter of 2021 →
An employer whose operation was suspended by orders in force on June 30, 2021 was not operating normally on July 1, 2021.
Continuing suspension →
A number that by the United States’ own account “isn’t an eligibility requirement” cannot be the ground on which any employer’s claim is decided.
Notice 2021-20 →
The Service is free to argue about how much a given order affected a given business. It is not free to say the orders did not exist.
Partial suspension →
A hotel that kept its rooms and lost its ballroom, its restaurant, its pool and its casino was open and partially suspended at once, and the statute asks only the second question.
Hotels, Travel and Tourism →

Tools

For your own record

Record Builder The orders in force for your business Pick your State, your metro, your industry and the quarters you claimed. Get the instruments in force, cited, with exhibit links, as a printable record. Build your record Orders Clock Any day, any State, on the map Scrub through every day from January 2020 through September 2021 and see which limitation types were in force where. Open the clock Letter Decoder Read the letter sentence by sentence Paste the letter. Each sentence the Service uses is matched to the ground it rests on and to what the record shows. Decode a letter Cite A citation for any instrument Issuer, instrument, date and exhibit number in one line, ready to paste into a response, a memorandum or a protest. Cite an order

The COVID Project is a public reference. It is not legal advice and it sells nothing. For advice about your own claim, talk to a professional who knows your facts.

Attorney referral If your business has an IRS letter, an examination or an Appeals conference ahead of it, The COVID Project can connect you with an experienced tax attorney for IRS Appeals and refund litigation, including Civil Counsel Group LLP.

The COVID Project is not a law firm; the attorney contacts you directly.

Ask for a referral