Written by Sam Brotman, J.D., LL.M. (Taxation), MBA — Managing Attorney, Brotman Law  ·  Updated June 2026

What IRS Letter 6612 Is

Letter 6612 is the IRS’s formal notice that your ERC claim has been selected for examination under the ERC Specialty Program.

The letter identifies the tax periods under examination — typically the specific quarters in 2020 or 2021 for which you claimed ERC credits — and states the specific issues the IRS intends to examine. Those issues are generally one or more of the following: whether your business had the required number of qualified employees, whether you paid qualified wages as defined under the CARES Act and subsequent legislation, whether you satisfied the government orders test (partial suspension of operations), and whether you satisfied the gross receipts decline test.

The letter also sets a response deadline. That deadline is typically 30 days from the date printed on the letter — not the date you received it. If the letter is dated June 1 and you received it on June 8, your response deadline is July 1, not July 8. Mail delays in IRS correspondence are common. Check the letter date first.

What the IRS Will Request

The IRS’s document request in an ERC examination is specific and extensive. Based on the examination issues identified in the letter, the IRS will typically request some or all of the following:

• Form 941 for each quarter claimed. The quarterly payroll tax returns are the source documents for the credit calculation.
• Payroll records. Detailed payroll registers, employee rosters, and wage records for the quarters under examination.
• Employee count documentation. Records establishing whether you qualified as a small employer or large employer under the ERC rules — the distinction affects which wages qualify.
• Government orders documentation (if claiming the partial suspension test). Copies of federal, state, and local government orders in effect during the claimed quarters, along with a written analysis of how those orders affected your specific business operations.
• Revenue documentation (if claiming the gross receipts decline test). Quarterly financial statements or bank statements showing gross receipts for the claimed quarters and the corresponding comparison quarters, plus the quarterly Form 941s to cross-reference.
• PPP loan documents. If you received a Paycheck Protection Program loan, the IRS will request documentation to ensure that wages paid with forgiven PPP proceeds were not also used as the basis for ERC credits. The same wages cannot support both.

What to Do Right Now

The first steps after receiving Letter 6612 are straightforward — but the order matters.

Note the date printed on the letter. Count 30 days from that date. That is your response deadline. Write it down.

Do not call the IRS without counsel. A call to the examining agent without legal representation can result in statements that narrow your options later in the examination. The IRS’s notes from that call become part of the examination file.

Do not gather and send documents without legal review of what to produce and what to withhold. Some documents help your case; others raise new issues. An attorney can review the document request and identify which items are responsive, which are not, and how to present responsive documents in the most favorable context.

Contact a qualified tax attorney who handles ERC examinations. The facts you need to establish — particularly for the government orders test — require legal analysis before the first document goes to the IRS.

Why This Is a Legal Matter, Not an Accounting Matter

ERC eligibility is a legal determination. The analysis of whether a government order “partially suspended” your business operations is a legal question, not a bookkeeping question.

A CPA can organize your payroll records, reconcile your Form 941s, and prepare clean financial statements. That work is necessary. But the core question in most ERC examinations is not whether the numbers add up — it is whether your business met the legal standard for ERC eligibility in the first place.

The partial suspension test under Notice 2021-20 requires a factual and legal analysis of the specific government orders in effect during each quarter, the specific operations of your business, and whether those orders caused more than a nominal effect on your ability to conduct business. The IRS has specific guidance on what qualifies and what does not. That guidance has been the subject of extensive litigation. Whether the orders in your city or county, applied to your specific industry and business model, satisfied the test in 2020 or 2021 is a legal argument — not a calculation.

Representing yourself through an ERC examination, or relying solely on your CPA, puts you at a disadvantage on the legal questions that ultimately determine the outcome. We handle ERC audit defense from Letter 6612 through Appeals.

What Comes After Letter 6612

The ERC examination process follows a defined sequence. Knowing where you are in it helps you understand what the next step looks like.

After you respond to the initial information document request, the IRS examiner reviews your documentation and issues preliminary findings. If the examiner proposes a disallowance of some or all of your ERC credit, you will receive a 30-day letter — typically delivered with Form 4549, which sets out the proposed adjustments. That letter gives you 30 days to request an IRS Appeals conference before the proposed adjustments are formally assessed.

If the matter is not resolved at Appeals, the IRS issues a Notice of Deficiency. You then have 90 days to petition the United States Tax Court for a redetermination before the assessment becomes final. Most ERC cases that are properly defended are resolved before reaching Tax Court — either at the examination stage or at Appeals — but the option exists.