ERC Refund Status in 2026: Where the Remaining Claims Actually Stand

The ERC has had a strange life. It started as pandemic relief, got overrun by promoters who treated it like a lottery ticket, triggered a processing freeze, and is now in a long, quiet cleanup phase that almost nobody is reporting on. If you filed a claim and have been sitting in silence, this is where things actually stand.

First: the filing window is closed. For everyone.

The statutory deadlines to file an original or amended ERC claim have passed. Businesses had until April 15, 2024 for 2020 tax periods and April 15, 2025 for 2021 tax periods, per the IRS's own ERC FAQ. Those dates are tied to when the original payroll tax returns were due. They are not being reopened.

This matters for one reason beyond the obvious: anyone still cold-calling you about "qualifying" for the ERC is selling you a problem. There is nothing left to file. The promoters who created this mess have mostly moved on to the next credit, and the businesses left holding contested claims are the ones who believed them the first time.

What is actually left in the pipeline

What is actually left in the ERC pipeline

The roughly 20,000 Employee Retention Credit claims still in IRS inventory, by stage, as of the week ending 2026-07-04.

Read the shape, not the total. Only about 4,100 claims are anywhere near a payment decision. About 12,900 — roughly two-thirds of what remains — are in audit, disallowance response, or Appeals. The easy claims have already been paid. What is left is largely contested. The IRS updates this page monthly, so check the source rather than trusting this snapshot.

View the data as a table

	Value
Awaiting review of disallowance responses	6,100
Under audit	5,200
Pending payment or disallowance	4,100
Under review	3,000
At the Independent Office of Appeals	1,600

If your claim is still open in 2026, the odds are it is open because the IRS has a question about it — not because a clerk has not gotten to it.

How we got here (in the past tense, because it matters)

In September 2023 the IRS imposed a moratorium on processing newly filed ERC claims, citing a flood of questionable submissions driven by aggressive promoters. A great deal of published guidance — including, until this update, our own — still describes that freeze as if it were current. It is not.

The IRS has since resumed processing. In its own words, the agency "will now start processing ERC claims filed between Sept. 14, 2023, and Jan. 31, 2024." The remaining inventory has shifted from unprocessed to disputed — audits, disallowances, and appeals. That is a completely different problem, and it needs a completely different response from you.

One more trap that most ERC coverage misses entirely: under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the IRS is barred from allowing or refunding Q3 and Q4 2021 claims after July 4, 2025 if the claim was filed after January 31, 2024 — even where the business was otherwise eligible. If that describes your claim, the eligibility argument is moot and you should stop paying anyone to make it.

The deadline that is quietly costing people their refunds

This is the part worth reading twice.

When the IRS disallows an ERC claim it sends a Letter 105-C (full disallowance) or 106-C (partial). From the date on that letter you generally have two years under IRC § 6532(a) to resolve the claim or file a refund suit in federal court.

Here is the trap: protesting the disallowance with the IRS Independent Office of Appeals does not extend that two-year statutory deadline. Business owners assume that once an appeal is filed, the clock is handled and the process will take as long as it takes. It is not, and it will not. If the two years run out, the IRS cannot issue the refund — even if it later agrees you were right.

You can win the argument and still lose the money, because the clock kept running the entire time you were being right.

The Form 907 option

The IRS acknowledged this problem. As of April 27, 2026, taxpayers can request more time by filing Form 907, Agreement to Extend the Time to Bring Suit, through a streamlined process. Per the Taxpayer Advocate Service, you generally need to meet two conditions:

• You are waiting on the IRS to consider your response to a notice of disallowance (Letter 105-C or 106-C), and
• You have six months or less remaining before the two-year period expires.

If you have a disallowance letter sitting in a drawer, the single most useful thing you can do today is find it and read the date on it. Everything else is downstream of that date.

Where an unpaid ERC claim actually sits

The honest map of a claim that has not been paid.

Figures as of the week ending 2026-07-04 (IRS page reviewed 2026-07-07). This number moves — check the source before relying on it.

How to actually check where your claim stands

None of this requires guessing. You have three real options:

• Your business's IRS online account shows the status of amended returns, including ERC-related Form 941-X filings, once processing has begun.
• The IRS Business and Specialty Tax line can give a status update by phone. Have your EIN and the specific tax period of the 941-X in front of you.
• The CPA firm or provider who filed for you typically has its own case-tracking relationship with the IRS and can usually be more specific than the general line — assuming they are still answering the phone, which for some ERC mills is a real question.

If your claim was filed months ago with no movement and no correspondence, that is worth an active follow-up rather than continuing to wait silently. The IRS does send information requests when something is missing — but a claim can also simply sit in a review queue, and nobody is going to call you about it.

What to do based on where you are

Your situation	What it means	What to do now
Filed, heard nothing	You may be in the ~3,000 under review or ~4,100 pending decision.	Confirm the IRS received it and that your address on file is current. A refund or a letter you never receive is the worst outcome.
Under audit	~5,200 claims. Documentation decides this.	Reconstruct the eligibility basis — the specific government order or the gross-receipts math — with contemporaneous records.
Disallowed (105-C / 106-C)	A two-year clock is running from the letter date.	Calculate your deadline immediately. If under six months remain and you are awaiting IRS review of your response, look at Form 907.
At Appeals	~1,600 claims. The two-year clock is still running.	Do not assume Appeals protects the deadline. It does not. Track it yourself.
Doubts about a refund you already got	Repayment with reduced penalties has been cheaper than losing an audit.	The IRS has run withdrawal and voluntary disclosure programs; terms have changed repeatedly. Check current IRS guidance before acting.

What actually determined eligibility

Since the remaining inventory is mostly contested, it is worth restating what the credit actually required — because a great deal of marketing blurred it. Broadly, an employer qualified for a given quarter under one of two tests:

• A significant decline in gross receipts compared with the equivalent 2019 quarter, measured against thresholds that differ between 2020 and 2021, or
• A full or partial suspension of operations due to a government order limiting commerce, travel, or group meetings.

The gross receipts test is arithmetic. You either cleared the threshold or you did not. The suspension test is a judgment call, and that is precisely where the promoters went to work — and where the audits are now concentrated. If your claim rests on a partial-suspension argument built by someone who never asked to see a government order, you should assume it will be examined on exactly that point.

Important: MidBank is not a bank, a financial institution, or a financial advisor. We are an advocate and ISO affiliate that connects businesses to vetted third-party providers. This article is general information published on July 8, 2026, not legal, tax, or financial advice — rules and rates change, and your situation is specific to you. Confirm details with the primary sources linked above and with a qualified tax or legal professional before acting.