FFCRA: Paid Time Off Work Due to Covid - up to $32k Per Person

Originally published 2/15/2021. Last updated 4/3/2022

FFCRA (Families First Coronavirus Response Act) is paid Covid leave for taking off work between April 1, 2020 and September 30, 2021, due to an eligible Covid-related reason. This credit is for businesses with W2 employees, self-employed / 1099 workers, and partners in a 1065 Partnership.

The amount you get is based on how many days you had to take off work due to a Covid-related reason and your “rate of pay” as an employee or your net income if you are self-employed. The maximum possible credit is $32,220 per person ($64,440 for a couple filing jointly who are both self-employed).

How Much FFCRA Can You Get
Rate of Pay for Self-Employed
Who Can Get FFCRA
How to Claim FFCRA
More Details
- Intermittent Paid Leave
- Residency
- No Current Year Self-Employed Income
- Mixed Earner – Employee & Self-Employed
- FFCRA & Unemployment
- FFCRA & PPP
External Links

How Much FFCRA Can You Get

There are two “buckets” of days for claiming FFCRA for days you took off work. You can get both.

April 1 2020 through March 31 2021 – Max $15,110
April 1 2021 through September 30 2021 – Max $17,110

BUCKET #1 (APRIL 2020 – MARCH 2021)

For bucket #1 (April 2020 – March 2021) you can get up to 60 days of paid leave, with a maximum credit of $15,110.
Here is the breakdown:

Sick Leave (EPSLA) – 10 days (80 hours)
You can claim a total of ten days between these two options:
- Full pay (max $511 per day)
  - If you have Covid (including seeking diagnosis) or need to quarantine on the advice of a government or healthcare provider.
- 67% pay (max $200 per day)
  - If you need to care for someone else who is quarantining or your child’s place of care is closed, or your childcare provider is not working due to Covid-19 precautions.
Family Leave (EMFLEA) – 50 days
- 67% pay (max $200 per day)
  - If your child’s place of care is closed, or your childcare provider is not working due to Covid-19 precautions.

BUCKET #2 (APRIL 2021 – SEPTEMBER 2021)

For bucket #2 (April 2021 – September 2021) you can get up to 70 days of paid leave, with a maximum credit of $17,110.
Here is the breakdown:

Sick Leave (EPSLA) – 10 days (80 hours)
You can claim a total of ten days between these two options:
- Full pay (max $511 per day)
  - If you have Covid (including seeking diagnosis) or need to quarantine on the advice of a government or healthcare provider, or if you went to get vaccinated, or if you needed to recover from reactions to the vaccine.
- 67% pay (max $200 per day)
  - If you need to care for someone else who is quarantining or your child’s place of care is closed, or your childcare provider is not working due to Covid-19 precautions.
Family Leave (EMFLEA) – 60 days
- 67% pay (max $200 per day)
  - If you need to care for someone else who is quarantining or your child’s place of care is closed, or your childcare provider is not working due to Covid-19 precautions, or you had to accompany an individual to obtain the COVID-19 vaccine or caring for an individual who is recovering from conditions related to obtaining the COVID-19 vaccine.

Rate of Pay for Self-Employed

“Full pay” and “67% pay” are based on your “rate of pay”. W2 employees have a regular rate of pay. The “rate of pay” for self-employed individuals and partners in a 1065 partnership is calculated as follows:

Schedule C: To calculate your daily “rate of pay”, multiply line 31 of your Schedule C (your annual net income, or “salary”) by 92.35% then divide that by 260. For example, if your line 31 is $100,000, your daily rate of pay is $355.19.
Partners in a 1065 Partnership: To calculate your daily rate of pay, multiply Schedule K1 line 14a by 92.35%, and then divide by 260. For example, if your line 14a is $100,000, your daily rate of pay is $355.19. Only active partners are eligible for FFCRA, so if your line 14a is blank, you are unfortunately not eligible.

Who Can Get FFCRA

Self-Employed / 1099 Workers
- Only if you file a Schedule C as part of your tax return.
Active Partners in a 1065 Partnership
- Only active partners are eligible. Passive partners are not eligible.
W2 Employees / Businesses with Payroll
- Company size: The company has less than 500 employees.
- Mandatory vs Optional
  April-Dec 2020 – mandatory for employers to offer it if they have 50 or more employees.
  Jan-Sep 2021 – voluntary for employers to offer it (but it doesn’t cost them a penny – as they get fully reimbursed).

How To Claim FFCRA

Businesses with Payroll (W2 Employees)

Employees tell their employer the dates and reasons that they are taking off. The employer pays the employee and is reimbursed with a tax credit when they file their quarterly payroll report (941). It doesn’t cost the employer anything.

Self-employed & Partners in a 1065 Partnership

When you file your annual tax return, you request the money via form 7202 (Update 4/1/22: The IRS took down the form – we are not sure if they are editing it. In the meantime, here is the PDF). It’s a fully refundable credit.

For days from 04/01/2020-12/31/2020: When you file your 2020 taxes (in 2021).
For days from 01/01/2021-9/30/2021: When you file your 2021 taxes (in 2022).
Remember, when calculating your daily “rate of pay”, you can choose to use either the current year or prior year’s line 31 or line 14a to calculate your “daily rate”. For example, when filing your 2021 tax return, you can choose to use 2021 Schedule C line 31 or 2020 Schedule C line 31 to calculate your “rate of pay”. Logically one should also be able to use 2019 numbers in 2021 (as that was the year prior to Covid), but based on the wording in the IRS guidance, it seems they want you to choose just between 2021 and 2020 – speak to your accountant.

More Details

Intermittent Paid Leave

Telework: You can take the leave intermittently as needed (including hourly)
In-office: You are meant to take the leave in one shot (to avoid spreading the virus). If the reason you had to take off work no longer exists (e.g. lockdown stopped) and then the same or another reason caused you to have to take off work once again, that’s fine. If your child’s place of care is closed, you can work intermittently as needed even if you are in-office.

Note: Intermittent work can either be for complete days (e.g. work Mondays & Wednesdays claim FFCRA Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays) or time within a day (e.g. 90 minutes on followed by 90 minutes off). What is unclear is how self-employed individuals are meant to claim partial days, being that on the form to claim the credits in 2021, you need to provide a list of days that were taken off. Perhaps you just need to list the first ten days even if those were only “partial days” (for example you had to take off two hours per day each of those ten days), as long as in total you have sufficient hours you had to take off to equal the number of days you are claiming (at 8 hours per day).

Residency Requirement

We have not seen clear guidance if US residency is a requirement, or if someone living outside the USA is eligible.

No Current Year Self-Employed Income

You can use the prior year’s self-employed net income to calculate your “rate of pay”. So for example, even if you had zero net income in 2021, you can still claim FFCRA on your 2021 return based on your 2020 self-employed net income. If, however, you were not self-employed at all in 2021, then you most likely cannot be eligible, as you could not have taken off days of “work”.

Mixed Earner – Employee & Self-Employed

If you were both a W2 employee and self-employed and took paid leave from your W2 job, then if you were not eligible for the maximum daily rate ($511/$200) from your employer, you can top it up when filing your own taxes using your Schedule C line 31 / K1 line 14a.

FFCRA & Unemployment

You cannot get FFCRA and Unemployment for the same exact time. You need to be considered “employed” (just taking “paid leave”) in order to get FFCRA, whereas, for any time that you are collecting Unemployment, you are “unemployed”. Keep in mind that even someone claiming Unemployment might be eligible (e.g. if someone was on partial unemployment only for x days in a week).

FFCRA & PPP

PPP is a fully forgivable loan that was available to small businesses and self-employed individuals.

Business with Payroll (W2 Employees)
- PPP Application: If you are using your 2020 payroll to calculate PPP amount, remove any FFCRA reimbursements before calculating your figures for PPP.
- PPP Forgiveness: If an employee claims FFCRA during your PPP covered period, make sure to remove the FFCRA payments from your payroll calculation for PPP forgiveness.
Self-Employed / Schedule C
- Yes, you can get both PPP and FFCRA. You are eligible for full FFCRA even you received both sets of PPP funds.
- When applying for PPP, you are meant to lower your PPP amount in certain situations if you are claiming FFCRA (though from what we have seen, it seems that many ignored this guidance): If you claim FFCRA for days in 2020, and you apply for PPP using your 2020 income, then you are meant to deduct the amount of FFCRA that you got from your Line 31 on your Schedule C when applying for PPP. So say you have $52,000 in line 31 on your 2020 Schedule C, and you are claiming the full $10,000 in FFCRA for 2020, then you likely should deduct $10,000 from your line 31 before asking for your PPP (so it would be $42k / 12 x 2.5 instead of $52k / 12 x 2.5. Based on the above, you might be better off using your Schedule C 2019 for your PPP even if your 2020 Schedule C is higher).

FFCRA & ERC

You can apply for both ERC and FFCRA, as long as each one is reimbursing different money.