Updates to Payroll Protection Plan Loan forgiveness

As an update to this post, the President has signed the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act of 2020 today and it is now law.

The U.S. Senate approved sweeping changes to the Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program Wednesday evening, making the program's lending terms more favorable. The bipartisan bill, titled the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act of 2020, now heads to the President for his signature.

If signed into law by the President, the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act would:

• Extend the “covered period” under which small businesses can spend the loan proceeds from eight weeks to 24 weeks, or until Dec. 31. Remove the limits on loan forgiveness for small businesses that were unable to rehire employees, hire new employees or return to the same level of business activity as before the virus.
• Expand the 25% cap to use PPP funds on non-payroll expenses, such as rent, mortgage interest and utilities, to 40% of the total loan. That lowers the 75% requirement for payroll expenses to 60% to get maximum forgiveness. Allow small businesses to take a PPP loan and also qualify for a separate, recently enacted tax credit to defer payroll taxes, currently prohibited to prevent “double dipping.”
• Extend the loan terms for any unforgiven portions that need to be repaid from two years to five years, at 1% interest. Give small businesses more time to rehire employees or to obtain forgiveness for the loan if social-distancing guidelines and health-related actions from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or other agencies prevented the business from operating at the same capacity as it had before March 1.
• Extend the period for when a business can apply for loan forgiveness, from within six months to within 10 months of the last day of the covered period, before it must start making interest and principal payments.
• As always, we'll do our best to assist you with your PPP loans, as well as with your tax and accounting matters.