In plain terms: the letter says the orders affected your customers, not you, and points to Q&A-13 of the IRS's Notice. The statute asks whether your operation was suspended "due to" orders limiting commerce, travel or group meetings. "Due to" means "because of," and a federal court has held that it means but-for causation. An order that confined your customers to their homes, closed the venues they attended or quarantined the travelers who filled your rooms is an order limiting commerce, travel and group meetings; if your dining room, showroom or lobby stood empty because of it, your operation was suspended because of it. The Notice's own Q&A-10 lists a shelter-in-place proclamation as a qualifying order. Q&A-13, which would exclude it, was written in its present form on March 1, 2021, and the United States has told the Ninth Circuit that an order addressed to a third party can suspend your business.
The orders affected the employer's customers, not the employer (Q&A-13).
As stated in the Service's letters, Forms 886-A and memoranda
The statute and the causation rule
The Suspension Clause, section 2301(c)(2)(A)(ii)(I) of the CARES Act and section 3134(c)(2)(A)(ii)(I) of the Internal Revenue Code, asks whether the operation was partially suspended "due to" orders limiting commerce, travel or group meetings. "Due to" means "because of," and Tri-State Memorial Hospital v. United States, No. 2:25-cv-0181-TOR, ECF No. 38 (E.D. Wash. May 28, 2026) ("Tri-State"), holds that it requires but-for causation:
Both Plaintiff and Defendant agree that the plain meaning of "due to" is "because of." ... Defendant's interpretation improperly adds words into the statute. It asks us to add words to the law to produce what is thought to be a desirable result. ... Accordingly, the Court recognizes that "due to" requires "but-for" causation.
Tri-State, ECF No. 38, at 17, 19
An order that confined the employer's customers to their homes, closed the venues they attended, quarantined the travelers who filled its rooms or closed the schools its workforce depended on is an order limiting commerce, travel and group meetings; where the employer's dining room, showroom, lobby or classroom stood empty because of it, the operation was suspended because of it. The Interconnected Economy sets out the six mechanisms by which an order on one party suspended the operations of another, and the instruments that worked each of them.1
The Notice's own words
Q&A-10 of the Notice (Notice 2021-20, 2021-11 I.R.B. 922) lists "[a] State's emergency proclamation that residents must shelter in place for a specified period" as a qualifying order; Q&A-12 treats an order on a supplier, a third party, as a ground of suspension; and Q&A-13's exclusion cannot be reconciled with either. The exclusion in the form the Service now applies, reaching every employer and any "reduction in demand," first appeared on March 1, 2021; as posted on April 29, 2020, the Service's FAQ 32 confined it to "an essential business that is not required to close its physical locations or otherwise suspend its operations" claiming a suspension "for the sole reason" of its customers' stay-at-home order. The United States told the Ninth Circuit, in its answering brief of January 30, 2026 in No. 25-4217 ("Br. for Appellees"), that "a business may be suspended 'due to' a government order addressing a third party (such as an order that suspends the operations of a supplier of the business)," Br. for Appellees at 41 & n.5, and told the District Court, in its opposition and cross-motion for summary judgment in Stenson Tamaddon, LLC v. IRS, No. 2:24-cv-01123-SPL (D. Ariz. Jan. 6, 2025), ECF No. 44 ("Doc. 44"), that the Notice "lacks the force of law." Doc. 44 at 19.2
A customer who is forbidden to come is not a customer who chose not to come, and an order that emptied the premises by forbidding the public to enter them suspended the operation as surely as an order that locked the door.
"Due to" means "because of." If an order kept your customers away, closed the events they attended or stopped the travelers who filled your rooms, and your business stood empty because of it, your operation was suspended because of an order limiting commerce, travel or group meetings. That is the statute's test. Q&A-13 is a sentence the IRS wrote into its Notice on March 1, 2021; the Notice's own Q&A-10 lists the stay-at-home proclamation as a qualifying order, and the United States has told the Ninth Circuit that an order addressed to someone else can suspend your business.