Categories
blog

Inflation Reduction Act Apprenticeship Requirements

Supervisor and group of factory workers wearing hard hats meeting brief together before starting the day's work.

The contents of this blog post have been partially transcribed from our YouTube video, “Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) Apprenticeship Requirements”. We also cover the recordkeeping and prevailing wage requirements.

The Inflation Reduction Act opens tax incentives available to all taxpayers, and the requirement to comply with regulation to keep these credits becomes a rising priority. Amongst these requirements are the apprenticeship requirements. There are three main apprenticeship requirements under IRA: the Labor Hour Requirements, Ratio Requirements, and Participation Requirements. All requirements must be met to qualify for certain tax benefits and to avoid penalties.

Table of Contents

Labor Hour Requirements

The first requirement is the Labor Hour Requirement. This requirement sets a percentage of registered apprentice hours performed in reference to the total labor hours across the project. These percentages vary depending on the beginning of construction. 

  • If construction on your project began before January 1st, 2023, 10% of your overall project’s labor hours should be performed by registered apprentices. 
  • If the project began after December 31st, 2022, and before January 1st, 2024, 12.5% of hours should be registered apprentice hours.
  • Any construction occurring after December 31st, 2023 will have a 15% percentage requirement.

Ratio Requirement

When apprentices are on a project, they are typically supervised by journeymen. However, the provisions for the ratio at which the number of apprentices that a journeyman may supervise can vary. Under IRA, taxpayers must ensure that they are meeting the applicable supervision requirements under the state or federal provisions. The ratio will be determined either by the DOL or the applicable State apprenticeship agency. You may consult the applicable body to find your journeyman to apprentice ratio to avoid violations.

Base Participation Requirement

The base participation requirement for apprentices under IRA is as follows:

Each taxpayer, contractor, or subcontractor that hires 4 or more employees to work on a qualified facility must employ at least 1 registered apprentice. This requirement is maintained across the life of the project and is applicable across all contractors. 

Let’s examine a few scenarios to see how this is applied.

  • In scenario one, a contractor begins work on site and is going to have 6 employees. The participation requirement states that, because a minimum of 4 employees are performing work, at least 1 registered apprentice should be on payroll.
  • In scenario two, a contractor is consistently employing a different employee each week. Once the employee count of workers on site meets 4, a registered apprentice must be employed.

Good Faith Effort Exception

A contractor may possibly be exempt from apprenticeship requirements if they demonstrate the “Good Faith Effort Exception”. Under this exception, a taxpayer would be considered compliant under the apprenticeship requirements if they’ve demonstrated attempts to request an apprentice from a registered apprenticeship program and one of the following occurs: 1) The request is denied through no fault of the taxpayer, or 2) No response is provided within 5 business days after the request was received by the apprenticeship program. 

As noted by the IRS, “The good faith effort exception only applies to the specific portion of the request for apprentices that was not responded to or was denied. If a request was not responded to or was denied, the taxpayer must submit an additional request(s) to a registered apprenticeship program after 120 days to continue to be eligible for the good faith effort exception.” 

As provided by the IRA requirements, records must be kept, such as those indicating these attempts and proof of instances of exemption to thoroughly document efforts. 

How to Employ Apprentices

The IRS Guidance references an apprenticeship program tool, available at apprenticeship.gov. The Office of Apprenticeship’s “partner finder” and “apprenticeship job finder” tools provide access to different apprenticeship programs depending on your location and occupation. You may use either of these tools to find an apprenticeship program for a classification being employed on your project, and you may reach out to halls listed and attempt to employ a registered apprentice. 

You may also reach out to any state or local apprenticeship programs or offices in the project region that would assist in dispatching apprentices to meet this requirement.

Penalties

Per 87 FR 73580 Section 2, taxpayers who are unable to meet the ratio or participation requirements, or the “Good Faith Effort Exception”, may have to pay a penalty of $50 multiplied by the number of hours for which the requirement was not satisfied to the Secretary of Labor. If this is determined by the Secretary of Labor to be an intentional disregard for the provisions, the fine increases from $50 to $500 per hour. Taxpayers may also be forced to pay back the majority of credit received.

With this in mind, it’s important to meet the Apprenticeship Requirements under IRA and avoid costly penalties. If you have any questions or need further assistance, feel free to contact us.