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Employee Retention Credit
12 Months Ended
Jan. 31, 2022
Employee Retention Credit Disclosure [Abstract]  
Employee Retention Credit
Note 10—Employee Retention Credit
The CARES Act provides an employee retention credit (“ERC”) that is a refundable tax credit against certain employer taxes. On December 27, 2020, Congress enacted the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2020, which amended and extended ERC availability under Section 2301 of the CARES Act. Before the enactment of the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2020, we were ineligible for the ERC because we received the PPP Loan. Following enactment of the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2020, we and other businesses that received loans under that program became retroactively eligible for the ERC.
As a result of the foregoing legislation, we were eligible to claim a refundable tax credit against the employer share of Social Security taxes equal to seventy percent (70%) of the qualified wages that we paid to our employees between December 31, 2020 and June 30, 2021. Qualified wages are limited to $10,000 per employee per calendar quarter in 2021 for a maximum ERC per employee of $7,000 per calendar quarter in 2021.
We evaluated our eligibility for the ERC in the second quarter of calendar year 2021. In order to qualify for the ERC, we needed to experience a 20% reduction in gross receipts from either (1) the same quarter in calendar
year 2019 or (2) the immediately preceding quarter to the corresponding calendar quarter in 2019. We determined that we qualified for the employee retention credit under the first scenario for wages paid in calendar year 2020 and the first calendar quarter of 2021. In the second quarter of the current year, we amended certain payroll tax filings and applied for a refund of $3.1 million. Since there is no US GAAP guidance for
for-profit
business entities that receive government assistance that is not in the form of a loan, an income tax credit or revenue from a contract with a customer, we determined the appropriate accounting treatment by analogy to other guidance. We accounted for the employee retention credit by analogy to International Accounting Standards (IAS) 20, Accounting for Government Grants and Disclosure of Government Assistance, of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Under an IAS 20 analogy, a business entity would recognize the credit on a systematic basis over the periods in which the entity recognizes the payroll expenses for which the grant (i.e., tax credit) is intended to compensate when there is reasonable assurance (i.e., it is probable) that the entity will comply with any conditions attached to the grant and the grant (i.e., tax credit) will be received.
We recorded a $3.1 million receivable in the second quarter of fiscal 2022 for the ERC rece
i
vable. This amount remains outstanding as of January 31, 2022 and is included as such in the accompanying consolidated balance sheet. Th
e $3.1 million of ERCs was recognized as a reduction in employer payroll taxes and allocated to the financial statement captions from which the employee’s taxes were originally incurred. As a result, we recorded a reduction in expenses of $1.7 million in cost of revenue, $0.8 million in selling and marketing, $0.3 million in research and development and $0.3 milli
on
in general and administrative which is reflected in the accompanying consolidated income statement for the year ended January 31, 2022.
 
Subsequent to year end, on March 22,
2022
, we received the $3.1 million for the ERC.