Filing for the Work Opportunity Tax Credit looks simple on paper. Two forms, one deadline, one state agency. In practice, most employers lose the credit on a paperwork technicality. They miss the 28-day window. They file the wrong form to the wrong agency. Or they treat it as a year-end payroll task instead of a day-one hiring task.

This guide walks the certification process step by step. Form 8850, ETA Form 9061, the State Workforce Agency, and the 28-day clock. It is written for the person who actually files it: an HR lead, a payroll manager, or a tax coordinator at a midsize company.

One thing first, because it changes everything below.

Is WOTC Active in 2026?

No. Not right now. You need to know this before you file anything.

The Work Opportunity Tax Credit lapsed on December 31, 2025. Authority to claim the credit on wages paid after that date expired on January 1, 2026. The IRS confirms the last extension only ran through the end of 2025. Congress has not renewed it for 2026.

That does not mean the credit is dead. Multiple bills are pending. H.R. 1177 and S. 492, both titled the "Improve and Enhance the Work Opportunity Tax Credit Act," are among those in the 119th Congress. You can track H.R. 1177 on Congress.gov. None has passed. Until one does, no certification can be issued for a 2026 hire.

There is also a wrinkle on the forms themselves. The IRS marked Form 8850 "no longer in use" as of March 19, 2026. The old pre-screening form was retired during the lapse. So the exact filing tool you used in 2025 is not sitting on the IRS site the same way today.

So read the rest of this as two things. A record of how to certify your 2025 hires that still qualify. And a process map to run cleanly the moment reauthorization lands. We cover the lapse mechanics in more depth in our 2026 WOTC hiatus explainer.

What Is the WOTC Certification Process?

WOTC is not automatic. You do not just hire a veteran and take the credit on your taxes. The government has to certify that the new hire belongs to a targeted group first. Veterans are one of those groups.

Certification runs through your state, not the IRS. Every state has a State Workforce Agency, called the SWA. The SWA reviews your paperwork and decides if the hire qualifies. The IRS only enters the picture later, when you claim the dollar amount on your tax return.

The whole process has three moving parts. A pre-screening notice. A backup form that proves the targeted group. And a submission to your SWA inside a hard deadline.

Get all three right and you get a certification back. Miss one and the credit is gone, even if the hire clearly qualified. The forms are the gate.

What Is Form 8850 and How Do You File It?

Form 8850 is the Pre-Screening Notice and Certification Request. It is the front door of the whole process. It does two jobs. It screens the applicant for a targeted group. And it serves as your written request to the state to certify the hire.

The timing on this form trips up more employers than anything else. Form 8850 is not a hiring-paperwork afterthought. It has to be started before you even make the offer.

The pre-screening timing rule

On or before the day you make a job offer, both you and the applicant complete Form 8850. The applicant fills out their part. You complete the employer section. This is the pre-screening step. It happens at the offer stage, not on the first day of work.

Why so early? The credit is meant to influence the hiring decision. The law wants the screening done while the offer is still on the table. File it after the fact and the SWA can deny it.

Where Form 8850 goes

People assume Form 8850 goes to the IRS because it carries an IRS form number. It does not. You submit it to your State Workforce Agency, the one in the state where the employee works. The SWA is the certifying body.

The IRS keeps the About Form 8850 page live for reference, but note the March 2026 status change above. During an active program, the SWA tells you exactly which version and channel to use. Many states now run an online WOTC portal instead of paper. Always check your specific SWA's filing instructions before you submit.

What Is ETA Form 9061 and When Do You Need It?

Form 8850 screens the hire. ETA Form 9061 proves the why. It is called the Individual Characteristics Form, or ICF. It backs up the targeted-group claim with details.

The 9061 captures the specifics. For a veteran hire, that means things like service-connected disability status, how long the veteran was unemployed, and whether they received SNAP benefits. These details decide which veteran tier the hire falls into, and the tier decides the dollar amount of the credit. See the full breakdown in our guide to WOTC credit amounts by veteran target group.

You file ETA Form 9061 together with Form 8850 to the SWA. They travel as a package. The Department of Labor WOTC program oversees these ETA forms at the national level, while your state agency processes the actual filing.

9061 versus 9062

There are two versions of the backup form. You only use one, and which one depends on whether the applicant already had a conditional certification.

If the new hire walks in with a conditional certification already in hand, use the 9062. If not, use the 9061. You will use the 9061 far more often.

How Does the 28-Day Deadline Work?

This is the rule that makes or breaks the filing. You must submit Form 8850 and the ETA backup form to your SWA within 28 calendar days of the new hire's start date.

Read that twice. Twenty-eight calendar days, not business days. And it runs from the start date, not the offer date and not the date you got around to payroll. Weekends and holidays count.

Twenty-eight days sounds like plenty. It is not, once a real onboarding eats into it. First-week training, I-9 paperwork, benefits enrollment, equipment setup. The WOTC packet slips to the bottom of the pile and the clock keeps running.

The fix is to treat WOTC as a hiring task, not a tax task. Put the forms in the offer packet. Assign one owner. Set a calendar reminder at day 14, not day 27. The credit is only as good as your filing discipline.

What Happens to Your Filing During the 2026 Lapse?

Here is the part that surprises employers. The states are still open for business, even though the credit is paused.

Standing Department of Labor policy directs that states can continue to review and prepare WOTC certification requests during a lapse. They cannot issue a certification until the credit is restored. April 2026 guidance tied to the new funding reaffirmed this. Congress also funded this. The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 put $17.5 million toward state administration of the program.

So your SWA can take your Form 8850 and ETA 9061 right now. It will log them and hold them. It just cannot stamp a certification until Congress restores the credit. This has happened before. When WOTC lapsed in past years, Congress reauthorized it and made it retroactive, and states then worked through the held requests.

The takeaway is simple. Do not stop your process because of the lapse. The employers who keep filing on time are the ones positioned to claim the credit if reauthorization arrives. The ones who paused will have nothing in the queue.

How Do You Claim the Credit After Certification?

Certification and claiming are two different steps. The SWA certification only confirms the hire qualified. You still have to compute and claim the actual dollar amount on your tax return.

For a taxable business, the credit flows through Form 5884, the Work Opportunity Credit. That amount rolls into the general business credit on Form 3800. The credit amount depends on the veteran's tier and how many hours they worked in the first year. We break down the dollar tiers in our Returning Heroes and Wounded Warrior credits guide.

A tax-exempt organization uses a different path. It claims the credit against payroll taxes on Form 5884-C instead. Either way, you keep the SWA certification on file. It is your proof that the hire qualified if the IRS ever asks.

For the full overview of the credit and the veteran groups it covers, start with our WOTC employer guide. And WOTC is not the only lever. Our rundown of veteran hiring incentives beyond WOTC and our state tax incentive guide cover what stays available even while the federal credit is paused.

Set Up the Process Once, Then Hire

The credit is a back-end reward. The hire is the front-end work. The paperwork only matters if you have qualified veterans coming through your pipeline in the first place.

That is the part most midsize companies struggle with. They want to hire more veterans, but they do not have a reliable channel for finding them. They post on a general job board and hope a veteran applies.

Best Military Resume changes the math on supply. We add more than 1,000 new veteran profiles every month, and we have built over 60,000 veteran resumes to date. That is a fresh, growing pool of transitioning service members and veterans, the same people who put your hires in qualified WOTC tiers when the credit is active.

Set up your certification process now, while the credit is paused, so you are ready when it returns. Then point a real veteran pipeline at it. To access BMR's veteran talent pool, reach out through our hire page.