The June Cork Pub — ERC Pre-Engagement Research

1. Business Basics

• Name: The June Cork Pub
• Address: 66 Third Street, Dover, NH 03820
• Jurisdiction: City of Dover, Strafford County, New Hampshire
• Phone / email: (603) 343-1181 / info@thejunecorkpub.com
• Web: thejunecorkpub.com
• Self-described business model: "Modeled after a traditional British style pub, offering our patrons delectable food, engaging conversation, live sports and the finest beer." Multiple food services listed (lunch, brunch, dinner, beer/cocktails); staff Cicerone-certified; 12 draft taps + 20+ bottle/can options + cocktails/wine. Heavy soccer/rugby + EPL/La Liga/Bundesliga/Ligue 1/Serie A programming. Saturday open 7 a.m. (early-match crowd).
• Operator named publicly: John Bushnell, "Owner and Pub Director" (per pub's About page; per First Street Business Brokers article, 2019-12-09).

2. Founding-Date / Legal-Entity Question

• 2019-12-06. Sale of "Weeksie's Pizza" at the same Dover address closes (per First Street Business Brokers, 2019-12-09). Prior owner: Rich Seawards (≥20 yrs ownership). Acquirer: John Bushnell.
• 2020-06. The June Cork Pub "Established in June of 2020" per Discover Dover NH listing.

Two possible reads:

Read A — same legal entity, rebrand

Bushnell acquired Weeksie's Pizza's existing legal entity in December 2019 and rebranded operations after a renovation period. Under this read, the legal employer existed before February 15, 2020 → not an RSB; the 2019 baseline for the gross-receipts decline test would be Weeksie's Pizza 2019 figures.

Read B — new legal entity

Bushnell formed a new LLC (e.g., "June Cork Pub LLC" or similar) that acquired the location/assets and began carrying on a trade or business in June 2020. Under this read there is no 2019 comparable for the gross-receipts decline test, and the alternative comparison rules for new employers apply (Notice 2021-23, Notice 2021-49). Pre-OBBBA, Read B would have opened the RSB pathway to Q3/Q4 2021; for this engagement that pathway is moot under § 70605(d) (zero prior 941-Xs; 2026 filings are post-cutoff). Read A vs. Read B therefore matters only for the new-employer-comparator question on Q1/Q2 2021.

Why this is load-bearing for this engagement: Read A vs. Read B determines the comparator base for the gross-receipts decline test in 2021 Q1 and Q2 (Read A: Weeksie's Pizza 2019 numbers; Read B: new-employer alternative comparator under Notice 2021-23 / 2021-49). It does not, in this case, open or close any quarter — Q3/Q4 2021 are foreclosed under § 70605(d) regardless. Required client documents to resolve Read A vs. Read B: NH Secretary of State business filing showing entity formation date and EIN issuance date; copy of the Weeksie's Pizza purchase agreement showing whether it was an asset sale or stock/membership-interest sale; copy of the entity's first Form 941 to confirm operating start date.

3. NH / Strafford County Jurisdiction-Orders Timeline

Source citations below pulled from public sources (NH Governor's office press releases, Ballotpedia, Husch Blackwell tracker, Citizens Count). Each order should be cited by name/number/effective date in the appeal packet; analyst should retrieve primary text from the NH Governor's emergency-orders archive (governor.sununu.nh.gov/news-and-media/emergency-orders-2020) before drafting IRS-facing language.

4. Quarter-by-Quarter Implications (Pre-Engagement Preview, Not a Position)

5. NAICS Classification — Flag for Analyst

The pub serves substantial food (multiple meal services listed) but is also clearly drink-forward (12 taps, 20+ bottles, cocktails/wine, Cicerone-certified staff). Two candidates:

• 722410 — Drinking Places (Alcoholic Beverages): establishments primarily engaged in preparing and serving alcoholic beverages for immediate consumption. Food service incidental.
• 722511 — Full-Service Restaurants: establishments primarily engaged in providing food services to patrons who order and are served while seated.

Why it matters: NAICS classification matters for PPP/RRF analysis (RRF eligibility tracked food-and-beverage NAICS codes; specific filings rely on the entity's self-reported NAICS). Action: confirm at intake what NAICS code the entity used on its Forms 941 and federal income tax return; pull the food-vs-alcohol revenue split from POS data once available.

6. PPP / RRF Status — Open

Public searches for "June Cork Pub" PPP and RRF awards returned no specific records. Three possibilities, none ruled out:

1. PPP loan was sub-$150,000 — SBA's release of <$150K loans was less granular and may not surface in standard public lookups under the trade name.
2. PPP/RRF was filed under a different LLC / entity name (parent or DBA) — needs the entity's legal name to confirm.
3. The business did not take PPP/RRF.

Action: confirm at intake; request copies of any PPP forgiveness application and any RRF award documentation. ERC qualified-wage base must be reconciled against PPP-forgiven wages and RRF-funded wages per Notice 2021-20 Q&A 49 and Notice 2021-49.

7. Documents to Request at Engagement-Letter Signing / Intake

Restaurant-vertical canonical list, scoped to this case:

1. Entity formation documents — NH SOS filing, EIN issuance letter, operating agreement (resolves the Read A vs. Read B question above).
2. Purchase documentation for the Weeksie's Pizza acquisition — asset vs. equity sale, closing date, what carried over.
3. All quarterly Forms 941 for 2020 and 2021.
4. Any prior Forms 941-X filed for ERC quarters, with status (accepted / denied / pending).
5. Payroll registers for covered quarters, with FOH (servers, hosts, bartenders) / BOH (kitchen) split.
6. W-2s for covered employees; Form 8027 if 10+ employees and tipped operations.
7. POS data — daily/quarterly gross sales and customer counts (Toast, Square, Aloha, Micros, etc.).
8. Tip-wage workpapers — Form 8027 ↔ Form 8846 (FICA tip credit) ↔ ERC qualified-wage base reconciliation.
9. PPP loan documents — promissory note, forgiveness application, by-employee/by-pay-period covered-payroll detail.
10. RRF award documentation, if any — application, award letter, use-of-funds report.
11. Owner identification per intake default rule — names of owners (≥50% stake) + spouse names, with wages paid to them in covered quarters (excluded from intake total per hf/intake/related-party-default.md).
12. Any IRS correspondence on the ERC — Letter 105C / 106C / 6577C / 6612, CP-series notices.
13. Record of any state, county, or municipal COVID-19 orders the operator believes affected operations beyond the canonical NH timeline (county or City of Dover orders, if any).

8. Audit-Posture Flags Specific to This Case

• Tip-wage trap: pub with bartender/server tips will need careful Form 8027 / 8846 / ERC reconciliation. Standard audit-trigger zone for restaurant ERC files.
• Owner-spouse / related-party: per intake default, ask owner + spouse names only; exclude their wages from the intake total; flag for analyst.
• Partial-quarter (2021 Q2): mixed restriction period within the quarter; document the operational change carefully.
• Founding-date / RSB: Read A vs. Read B drives (a) the gross-receipts comparator base for Q1/Q2 2021 (Notice 2021-23 / 2021-49 new-employer rules) and (b) RSB eligibility for Q3/Q4 2021 if those quarters survive the § 70605(d) gate.
• Supply-chain Q&A 12 lane: narrow; avoid generic supply-chain rhetoric. Use only with documented upstream supplier governmental-order shutdown.
• OBBBA § 70605(a) COVID-ERTC promoter due-diligence: internal-compliance flag for Hundredfold (not client-interview content). Penalty is $1,000 per failure for promoters meeting the three-bucket gross-receipts test. CPEOs exempt.

9. SOL Posture

Standard Kwong / IRC § 7508A(d) two-track filing posture applies for the 2020 Q2/Q3/Q4 and 2021 Q1/Q2 quarters. Outer 941-X / Form 843 protective-claim deadlines cluster around 2026-07-10 under Kwong. Engagement signed in May 2026 has tight execution lead time; for any multi-quarter file, document collection should start the day the engagement letter signs.

OBBBA overlay:

• § 70605(d) refund cutoff (Q3/Q4 2021 only): IRS may not allow or refund those quarters' ERC for any 941-X filed after Jan 31, 2024 unless already paid before July 4, 2025. Independent of Kwong; the cutoff is procedural and quarter-targeted. Mailbox rule controls "filed" date.
• § 70605(e) 6-year assessment SoL (Q3/Q4 2021 only): the IRS's window to assess additional tax (recapture / claim back already-paid ERC) on Q3/Q4 2021 claims is 6 years from the later of the original 941 filing date or the 941-X claim date. Advise client to retain substantiation through 2029 at minimum.
• § 70605(f) — § 6676 20% excessive-refund penalty: now reaches employment-tax refund claims for any 941/941-X filed after July 4, 2025. Limited bite for our caseload (most filing windows closed) but applies to any post-enactment amendment.
• 2020 Q1–Q4 and 2021 Q1/Q2 are entirely outside § 70605(d) and (e); standard Kwong / § 7508A(d) two-track filing posture applies on those quarters.

10. Open Questions for Ryan

1. Confirm which entity the engagement runs under (legal LLC name, EIN). Determines Read A vs. Read B above.
2. Confirm whether the client took any PPP / RRF / EIDL funding; pull documentation.
3. Confirm the client's NAICS self-classification on prior 941s and federal income tax return.
4. OBBBA § 70605(d) gate (resolved 2026-05-02): Ryan confirmed zero prior 941-X filings for the entity. All 2026 filings are post-Jan-31-2024 cutoff → 2021 Q3 and Q4 foreclosed for this engagement. No further question; reflected throughout the file.
5. Decision: which of the live quarters (2020 Q2/Q3/Q4 + 2021 Q1/Q2) does Hundredfold want to pursue? Pre-research preview suggests 2020 Q2/Q3 and 2021 Q1 are cleanest under the partial-suspension prong; 2020 Q4 and 2021 Q2 are partial-quarter / receipts-decline-primary.
6. Any prior ERC promoter engagement on this client? If yes, pull prior 941-X filings before any new draft work.