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                                                                                           Department of the Treasury
                                                                                           Internal Revenue Service
Instructions for Form 8844

(Rev. December 2021)

For use with Form 8844 (Rev. March 2020)
Empowerment Zone Employment Credit

Section references are to the Internal Revenue Code             You are an estate or trust and the source credit can be 
unless otherwise noted.                                         allocated to beneficiaries. For more details, see the 
                                                                instructions for Form 1041, Schedule K-1, box 13, code K.
Future Developments                                             You are a cooperative and the source credit can or 
For the latest information about developments related to        must be allocated to patrons. For more details, see the 
Form 8844 and its instructions, such as legislation             instructions for Form 1120-C, Schedule J, line 5c.
enacted after they were published, go to IRS.gov/
Form8844.                                                       Which Revision To Use
                                                                Use the March 2020 revision of Form 8844 for tax years 
What's New                                                      beginning in 2021 or later, until a later revision is issued. 
Credit extension. The credit is extended to December            Use this December 2021 revision of the instructions for 
31, 2025. The Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief        tax years beginning in 2021 or later, until a later revision is 
Act of 2020 permitted the empowerment zone                      issued. Use prior revisions of the form and instructions for 
designations to be extended through 2025. On May 26,            earlier tax years. All revisions are available at IRS.gov/
2021, all empowerment zone designations were extended           Form8844.

from December 31, 2020, to December 31, 2025, in                Empowerment Zones
accordance with the automatic procedure in Rev. Proc. 
2021-18 for a state or local government in which an             Urban areas. Parts of the following urban areas were 
empowerment zone is located to extend the                       empowerment zones.
empowerment zone designation.                                   Pulaski County, AR
                                                                Tucson, AZ
Coronavirus-related employee retention credit.      You 
                                                                Fresno, CA
may claim an employee retention credit on an 
                                                                Los Angeles, CA (city and county)
employment tax return such as Form 941, Employer’s 
                                                                Santa Ana, CA
QUARTERLY Federal Tax Return. Certain wages used to 
                                                                New Haven, CT
figure these employment credits can’t also be used to 
                                                                Jacksonville, FL
figure a credit on Form 8844. For more information, see 
                                                                Miami/Dade County, FL
Wages, later.
                                                                Chicago, IL
Disaster-related employee retention credit.        You may      Gary/Hammond/East Chicago, IN
claim a 2020 qualified disaster retention credit on a Form      Boston, MA
5884-A, Employee Retention Credit for Employers                 Baltimore, MD
Affected by Qualified Disasters. Certain wages used to          Detroit, MI
figure that disaster-related employee retention credit can’t    Minneapolis, MN
also be used to figure a credit on Form 8844. See Wages,        St. Louis, MO/East St. Louis, IL
later.                                                          Cumberland County, NJ
                                                                New York, NY
General Instructions                                            Syracuse, NY
                                                                Yonkers, NY
Purpose of Form                                                 Cincinnati, OH
Use Form 8844 (Rev. March 2020) to claim the                    Cleveland, OH
empowerment zone employment credit. For the tax year,           Columbus, OH
the credit is 20% of the employer's qualified zone wages        Oklahoma City, OK
(up to $15,000) paid or incurred during the calendar year       Philadelphia, PA/Camden, NJ
for services performed by an employee while the                 Columbia/Sumter, SC
employee is a qualified zone employee.                          Knoxville, TN
                                                                El Paso, TX
Partnerships and S corporations must file this form to          San Antonio, TX
claim the credit. All others are generally not required to      Norfolk/Portsmouth, VA
complete or file this form if their only source for this credit Huntington, WV/Ironton, OH
is a partnership, S corporation, estate, trust, or              Note. The treatment of parts of Washington, DC as an 
cooperative. Instead, they can report this credit directly on   empowerment zone ended at the end of 2011.
Form 3800, General Business Credit. The following 
                                                                Rural areas. Part of the following rural areas were 
exceptions apply.
                                                                empowerment zones.

Dec 08, 2021                                        Cat. No. 66393K



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Desert Communities, CA (part of Riverside County)            individual who owns, directly or indirectly, more than 50 
Southwest Georgia United, GA (part of Crisp County           percent in value of the outstanding stock of the 
and all of Dooly County)                                       corporation, or, if the taxpayer is an entity other than a 
Southernmost Illinois Delta, IL (parts of Alexander and      corporation, to any individual who owns, directly or 
Johnson Counties and all of Pulaski County)                    indirectly, more than 50 percent of the capital and profits 
Kentucky Highlands, KY (part of Wayne County and all         interests in the entity (determined with the application of 
of Clinton and Jackson Counties)                               section 267(c))
Aroostook County, ME (part of Aroostook County)                  If the taxpayer is an estate or trust, is a grantor, 
Mid-Delta, MS (parts of Bolivar, Holmes, Humphreys,          beneficiary, or fiduciary of the estate or trust, or is an 
Leflore, Sunflower, and Washington Counties)                   individual who bears any of the relationships described in 
Griggs-Steele, ND (part of Griggs County and all of          subparagraphs (A) through (G) of section 152(d)(2) to a 
Steele County)                                                 grantor, beneficiary, or fiduciary of the estate or trust or
Oglala Sioux Tribe, SD (parts of Jackson and Bennett             Is a dependent (described in section 152(d)(2)(H)) of 
Counties and all of Shannon County)                            the taxpayer, or, if the taxpayer is a corporation, of an 
Middle Rio Grande FUTURO Communities, TX (parts of           individual described in subparagraph (A), or, if the 
Dimmit, Maverick, Uvalde, and Zavala Counties)                 taxpayer is an estate or trust, of a grantor, beneficiary, or 
Rio Grande Valley, TX (parts of Cameron, Hidalgo,            fiduciary of the estate or trust.
Starr, and Willacy Counties)
                                                               Early termination of employee.   Generally, an individual 
Qualified zone employee.    A qualified zone employee is       is not a qualified zone employee unless employed for at 
any employee (full-time or part-time) of the employer who:     least 90 days. The 90-day requirement does not apply in 
Performs substantially all of the services for that          the following situations.
employer within an empowerment zone in the employer’s              The employee is terminated because of misconduct as 
trade or business, and                                         determined under the applicable state unemployment 
Has his or her principal residence within that               compensation law.
empowerment zone while performing those services.                  The employee becomes disabled before the 90th day. 
  See Qualified Zone Employees below for a list of             However, if the disability ends before the 90th day, the 
persons who are not qualified employees.                       employer must offer to reemploy the former employee.
                                                                     An employee is not treated as terminated if the 
Qualified Zone Employees                                       corporate employer is acquired by another corporation 
Any person may be a qualified employee except the              under section 381(a) and the employee continues to be 
following.                                                     employed by the acquiring corporation. Nor is a mere 
A 5 percent owner: If the employer is a corporation, any     change in the form of conducting the trade or business 
person who owns (or is considered to own under section         treated as a termination if the employee continues to be 
318) more than 5% of the outstanding or voting stock of        employed in such trade or business and the taxpayer 
the employer or, if not a corporate employer, more than        retains a substantial interest therein.
5% of the capital or profits interest in the employer. See 
section 416(i)(1)(B) for details.                              Wages
Any individual employed by the employer for less than        Wages are defined in section 51(c) and are generally 
90 days. For exceptions, see Early termination of              wages (excluding tips) subject to the Federal 
employee, later.                                               Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA), without regard to the 
Any individual employed by the employer at any private       FUTA dollar limitation. The following are also treated as 
or commercial golf course, country club, massage parlor,       wages.
hot tub facility, suntan facility, racetrack or other facility     Amounts paid or incurred by the employer as 
used for gambling, or any store the principal business of      educational assistance payments excludable from the 
which is the sale of alcoholic beverages for consumption       employee’s gross income under section 127. However, 
off premises.                                                  this does not apply if the employee has a relationship to 
Any individual employed by the employer in a trade or        the employer described in section 267(b) or 707(b)(1) 
business of which the principal activity is farming (see       (substituting “10%” for “50%” in those sections) or the 
Note below), but only if at the close of the tax year the      employer and employee are engaged in trades or 
sum of the following amounts exceeds $500,000.                 businesses under common control (within the meaning of 
  1. The larger of the unadjusted bases or fair market         sections 52(a) and (b)).
value of the farm assets owned by the employer.                    Amounts paid or incurred by the employer on behalf of 
                                                               an employee under age 19 for a youth training program 
  2. The value of the farm assets leased by the 
                                                               operated by that employer in conjunction with local 
employer.
                                                               education officials.
Note. Certain farming activities are described in section            Qualified empowerment zone wages do not include:
2032A(e)(5)(A) or (B).                                             Wages paid after June 30, 2021, and before January 1, 
  No wages shall be taken into account with respect to         2022, and used to figure the credit for employer 
an individual who                                              differential wage payments can't also be used to figure a 
Bears any of the relationships described in                  coronavirus-related employee retention credit.
subparagraphs (A) through (G) of section 152(d)(2) to the          Wages paid to or incurred for any employee after 
taxpayer, or, if the taxpayer is a corporation, to an          December 31, 2020, and before July 1, 2021, if you use 

                                                               -2-   Instructions for Form 8844 ( December 2021)



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the same wages to claim the employee retention credit on          Schedule K-1 (Form 1065), Partner’s Share of Income, 
an employment tax return such as Form 941, Employer’s             Deductions, Credits, etc., box 15 (code L);
QUARTERLY Federal Tax Return; and                                 Schedule K-1 (Form 1120-S), Shareholder’s Share of 
Wages paid to or incurred for any employee generally            Income, Deductions, Credits, etc., box 13 (code L);
after December 27, 2019, and before April 17, 2021, if you        Schedule K-1 (Form 1041), Beneficiary’s Share of 
use the same wages to claim the 2020 qualified disaster           Income, Deductions, Credits, etc., box 13 (code K); and
employee retention credit on Form 5884-A, Employee                Form 1099-PATR, Taxable Distributions Received 
Retention Credit for Employers Affected by Qualified              From Cooperatives, box 12, or other notice of credit 
Disasters.                                                        allocation.
  Information about any future disaster credits that affect         Partnerships and S corporations must report the above 
qualified wages may be posted under “Recent                       credits on line 3. Also, estates and trusts that can allocate 
Developments” at IRS.gov/Form8844.                                the above credits to beneficiaries and cooperatives that 
                                                                  can allocate the above credits to patrons must report 
                                                                  these credits on line 3. All other filers figuring a separate 
Specific Instructions
                                                                  credit on earlier lines must report the above credits on 
Line 1—Qualified Zone Wages                                       line 3. All others not using earlier lines to figure a separate 
                                                                  credit can report the above credits directly on Form 3800, 
Enter the total qualified zone wages paid or incurred 
                                                                  Part III, line 3.
during the calendar year. The credit must be figured using 
only the wages that you paid or incurred in the calendar          Line 5
year that ended with or within your tax year. For example, 
if your tax year began on April 1, 2020, and ended on             Cooperatives.    A cooperative described in section 
March 31, 2021, you must figure wages based on the                1381(a) must allocate to its patrons the credit in excess of 
calendar year that began on January 1, 2021, and ended            its tax liability limit. Therefore, to figure the unused amount 
on December 31, 2021. Wages paid after the end of the             of the credit allocated to patrons, the cooperative must 
calendar year may be used only to figure the credit               first figure its tax liability. While any excess is allocated to 
claimed on the following year’s tax return.                       patrons, any credit recapture applies as if the cooperative 
  Qualified zone wages are qualified wages paid or                had claimed the entire credit.
incurred by an employer for services performed by an                If the cooperative is subject to the passive activity rules, 
employee while the employee is a qualified zone                   include on line 3 any empowerment zone and renewal 
employee (defined earlier). The maximum wages that may            community employment credits from passive activities 
be taken into account for each employee is limited to             disallowed for prior years and carried forward to this year.
$15,000. The $15,000 amount for any employee is                     Complete Form 8810, Corporate Passive Activity Loss 
reduced by the amount of wages paid or incurred during            and Credit Limitations, to determine the allowed credit that 
the calendar year on behalf of that employee that are used        must be allocated between the cooperative and the 
in figuring the work opportunity credit (Form 5884).              patrons. For details, see the Instructions for Form 8810.
Line 2                                                            Estates and trusts. Allocate the empowerment zone 
In general, you must reduce your deduction for salaries           employment credit on line 4 between the estate or trust 
and wages and certain educational and training costs by           and the beneficiaries in the same proportion as income 
the line 2 credit amount. You must make this reduction            was allocated and enter the beneficiaries' share on line 5. 
even if you cannot take the full credit this year because of      If the estate or trust is subject to the passive activity rules, 
the tax liability limit. If you capitalized any costs on which    include on line 3 any empowerment zone and renewal 
you figured the credit, reduce the amount capitalized by          community employment credits from passive activities 
the amount of the credit attributable to these costs.             disallowed for prior years and carried forward to this year. 
                                                                  Complete Form 8582-CR, Passive Activity Credit 
  Members of a controlled group of corporations and               Limitations, to determine the allowed credit that must be 
businesses under common control are treated as a single           allocated between the estate or trust and the 
employer in determining the credit. The members share             beneficiaries. For details, see the Instructions for Form 
the credit in the same proportion that they paid or incurred      8582-CR.
qualifying zone wages.

Line 3
Enter total empowerment zone employment credits from:

Paperwork Reduction Act Notice. We ask for the information on this form to carry out the Internal Revenue laws of the 
United States. You are required to give us the information. We need it to ensure that you are complying with these laws 
and to allow us to figure and collect the right amount of tax.
  You are not required to provide the information requested on a form that is subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act 
unless the form displays a valid OMB control number. Books or records relating to a form or its instructions must be 
retained as long as their contents may become material in the administration of any Internal Revenue law. Generally, tax 
returns and return information are confidential, as required by section 6103.

Instructions for Form 8844 ( December 2021)                    -3-



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The time needed to complete and file this form will vary depending on individual circumstances. The estimated burden 
for individual and business taxpayers filing this form is approved under OMB control number 1545-0074 and 1545-0123 
and is included in the estimates shown in the instructions for their individual and business income tax return. The 
estimated burden for all other taxpayers who file this form is shown below.

Recordkeeping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 hr., 4 min.
Learning about the law or the form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .       2 hr., 22 min.
Preparing and sending the form to the IRS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .           2 hr., 33 min.

If you have comments concerning the accuracy of these time estimates or suggestions for making this form simpler, 
we would be happy to hear from you. See the instructions for the tax return with which this form is filed.

                                                                                   -4-                         Instructions for Form 8844 ( December 2021)






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