The HIRE Act, enacted March 18, 2010, provides for two new tax benefits for employers. Recently, the IRS provided additional clarification regarding both the "social security holiday" benefit (employers' exemption from their share of the social security tax paid on qualifying employees' wages) and the new hire retention credit.

Highlights from the additional FAQs on the social security holiday include:

• Guidance on when an individual "begins employment" for the purposes of the HIRE Act.
• Types of terminations of former employee to make the job an eligible position.

As part of the FAQs, the IRS indicates that time worked as an independent contractor (i.e. self-employed) does not count towards the 40 hours worked in the 60 days before beginning employment.

Highlights of the FAQs for the New Hire Retention Credit part of the HIRE Act include:

• For calculating wages for the new hire credit, include bonuses and/or taxable fringe benefits.
• When calculating wages for for income tax purposes, the last 26 weeks' wages must equal at least 80% of the first 26 weeks' wages.
• Fiscal year taxpayers can claim the new hire credit on their 2010 business income tax return if the eligible individual has been employed for the 52 consecutive weeks prior to the end of the 2010 fiscal year.