Notice 2020-78 provides transition relief for employers that hired certain individuals residing in empowerment zones between January 1, 2018, and December 31, 2020. Section 51 provides employers with a work opportunity credit for hiring certain individuals certified by a Designated Local Agency (DLA) to be a member of a targeted group listed in § 51(d). Employers must receive, on or before the day on which such individual begins work for the employer, a certification from a DLA that such individual is a member of a targeted group or must request certification that the individual is a member of a targeted group by submitting Form 8850 (Pre-Screening Notification and Certification Request for the Work Opportunity Credit) to a DLA within 28 days of hiring that individual. The certification of an individual as a Designated Community Resident under § 51(d)(5), or as a Qualified Summer Youth Employees under § 51(d)(7), requires that the individual reside within an empowerment zone. Empowerment zone designations under section 1391 expired after December 31, 2017, and were retroactively reauthorized on December 20, 2019, for tax years beginning January 1, 2018, through December 31, 2020. Employers, therefore, could not timely request certification for employees otherwise satisfying the criteria for these two targeted groups until empowerment zone designations were renewed. This notice allows employers additional time beyond the 28-day requirement to request certification for individuals in these two targeted groups. 

Notice 2020-78 will be in IRB: 2020-53, dated 12/28/2020.