Description of business and basis of presentation |
9 Months Ended |
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Sep. 30, 2021 | |
| Accounting Policies [Abstract] | |
| Description of business and basis of presentation |
Description of Business and Basis of Presentation Description of Business
Tecogen Inc., or we, our or us, produces commercial and industrial engine-driven, combined heat and power (CHP) products that reduce energy costs, decrease greenhouse gas emissions and alleviate congestion on the national power grid. Our products supply electric power or mechanical power for cooling, while heat from the engine is recovered and purposefully used at a facility. We also install, own, operate and maintain complete energy systems and other complementary systems at customer sites and sell electricity, hot water, heat and cooling energy under long-term contracts at prices guaranteed to the customer to be below conventional utility rates.
The majority of our customers are located in regions with the highest utility rates, typically California, the Midwest and the Northeast.
Our common stock is quoted on OTC Markets Group, Inc.'s OTCQX Best Market tier and trades under the symbol "TGEN."
On May 18, 2017, the Company acquired 100% of the outstanding common stock of American DG Energy Inc., formerly a related entity, in a stock-for-stock merger.
Basis of Presentation
The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles for interim financial information and with the instructions to Form 10-Q and Article 8 of Regulation S-X. Accordingly, they do not include all the information and footnotes required by generally accepted accounting principles for complete financial statements. In the opinion of management, all adjustments considered necessary for a fair presentation have been included. Operating results for the nine months ended September 30, 2021 are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the year ending December 31, 2021.
The condensed consolidated balance sheet at December 31, 2020 has been derived from the audited consolidated financial statements at that date but does not include all of the information and footnotes required by generally accepted accounting principles for complete financial statements.
For further information, refer to the consolidated financial statements and footnotes thereto included in Tecogen's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020.
The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements include our accounts and the accounts of entities in which we have a controlling financial interest. Those entities include our wholly-owned subsidiaries American DG Energy Inc., Tecogen CHP Solutions, Inc., and a joint venture, American DG New York, LLC, in which American DG Energy Inc. holds a 51% interest. Investments in partnerships and companies in which we do not have a controlling financial interest but where we have significant influence are accounted for under the equity method. Any intercompany transactions have been eliminated in consolidation.
Our operations are comprised of two business segments. Our Products and Services segment designs, manufactures and sells industrial and commercial cogeneration systems as described above. Our Energy Production segment sells energy in the form of electricity, heat, hot water and cooling to our customers under long-term sales agreements.
Reclassification
Certain prior period amounts have been reclassified to conform with current year presentation.
Use of Estimates
The preparation of financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates.
Income Taxes
The provisions for income taxes in the accompanying unaudited consolidated statements of operations differ from that which would be expected by applying the federal statutory tax rate primarily due to losses for which no benefit is recognized.
Employee Retention Credit
On March 27, 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”) was signed into law providing numerous tax provisions and other stimulus measures, including an employee retention credit (“ERC”), which is a refundable tax credit against certain employment taxes. The Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2020 and the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 extended and expanded the availability of the ERC.
Section 2301(c)(2)(B) of the CARES Act permits an employer to use an alternative quarter to calculate gross receipts and the employer may determine if the decline in gross receipt tests is met for a calendar quarter in 2021 by comparing its gross receipts for the immediately preceding calendar quarter with those for the corresponding calendar quarter in 2019. Accordingly, for the first quarter of 2021, we elected to use our gross receipts for the fourth calendar quarter of 2020 compared to our gross receipts for the fourth calendar quarter of 2019. As a result of our election to use an alternative quarter, we qualified for the ERC in the first, second and third quarters of 2021 because our gross receipts decreased by more than 20% from the first, second and third quarters of 2019. As a result of averaging 100 or fewer full-time employees in 2019, all wages paid to employees in the first, second and third quarters of 2021 were eligible for the ERC.
Accounting Standards Codification 105, "Generally Accepted Accounting Principles," describes the decision-making framework when no guidance exists in US GAAP for a particular transaction. Specifically, ASC 105-10-05-2 instructs companies to look for guidance for a similar transaction within US GAAP and apply that guidance by analogy. As such, forms of government assistance, such as the ERC, provided to business entities would not be within the scope of ASC 958, but it may be applied by analogy under ASC 105-10-05-2. We accounted for the Employee Retention Credit as a government grant in accordance with Accounting Standards Update 2013-06, Not-for-Profit Entities (Topic 958) ("ASU 2013-06") by analogy under ASC 105-10-05-2. Under this standard, government grants are recognized when the conditions or conditions on which they depend are substantially met. The conditions for recognition of the ERC include, but are not limited to:
•An entity has been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic
•We have not used qualifying payroll for both the Paycheck Protection Program and the ERC
•We incurred payroll costs to retain employees
•The process for filing for the credit is an administrative task and not a barrier to receiving the credits
During the three and nine months ended September 30, 2021, we recorded ERC benefits of $562,253 and $1,276,021, respectively in other income (expense), net in our condensed consolidated statements of operations. A current receivable in the amount of $1,276,021 is included in our condensed consolidated balance sheet as of September 30, 2021.
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