The IRS has issued a revision of IRS Form 8850 “Pre-Screening Notice and Certification Request for the Work Opportunity Credit.”  This revision was made necessary by the recent Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 (PATH Act), which added a new target group to the WOTC program. The form now includes a question to screen for Long Term Unemployment Recipients.
Question number 7 at the bottom reads:

“Check here if you are in a period of unemployment that is at least 27 consecutive weeks and for all or part of that period you received unemployment compensation.”

The form’s instructions include guidance that defines the new target group:

Qualified long-term unemployment recipient. An individual hired after 2015 who on the day before the individual begins work for the employer, or, if earlier, the day the individual completes Form 8850 as a prescreening notice, is in a period of unemployment that: Is not less than 27 consecutive weeks, and Includes a period (which may be less than 27 consecutive weeks) in which the individual received unemployment compensation under state or federal law.

Please share this news with your friends and business associates!