Lottery

Employers who, during the pandemic, kept their employees on the payroll are now eligible for tax credits in a program called Employee Retention Credit. The credit is 50% of up to $10,000 in wages paid by any business that was adversely affected by the Covid. A private company called getrefund.com is now helping people get these refunds. The process like most government programs is difficult to follow and easy to mess up so companies are willing to pay a fee to have this done. This reminds me of a friend I knew in Florida. He was from Germany and came to the US because he won the lottery. When he got here he started a business to help others fill out the paper work to participate in the lottery. He would place ads in magazines all across Europe and parts of Africa. He charged $75 to fill out the forms. When he had winners he would put those names in his ads and that led to more business. He went on vacation and asked me to go to the post office each day and put his mail on a table in his home. He was averaging 9 letters per day and each one contained $75. He was earning $200,000 a year. American entrepreneurship at its best.