After PPP changes made by the Paycheck Protection Flexibility Act of 2020, P.L. 116-142 on June 5, 2020, a revised loan forgiveness application for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was finally released by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), in consultation with the Treasury, on Wednesday June 17, 2020. The SBA also released a new EZ application for forgiveness of PPP loans for the first time, making the effort to simplify the PPP loan forgiveness applications and benefit more small and self-employed business owners.

Some recaps of the recent changes made to PPP loan forgiveness application:

  • “Covered period” has been expanded from 8 weeks to 24 weeks;
  • A reduction of the proportion of proceeds that must be spent on payroll costs from 75% to 60%;
  • The establishment of a safe harbor for businesses that have been unable to return to the level of business activity they had before the COVID-19 pandemic due to compliance with health and safety guidelines for slowing the spread of the

Application highlights of the revised PPP Loan Forgiveness Application

These highlights include:

  • Health insurance costs for S corporation owners cannot be included when calculating payroll costs; however, retirement costs for S corporation owners are eligible
  • Safe harbors for excluding salary and hourly wage reductions and reductions in the number of employees (full-time equivalents) from loan forgiveness reductions can be applied as of the date the loan forgiveness application is submitted. Borrowers don’t have to wait until Dec. 31 to apply for forgiveness to use the safe
  • Borrowers that received loans before June 5 can choose between using the original eight-week covered period or the new 24-week covered

New EZ application details

The EZ PPP Loan Forgiveness Application (Form 3508EZ) requires fewer calculations and less documentation than the full application. The EZ application can be used by borrowers that meet at least one of the three requirements below:

 

  • Are self-employed and have no employees;
  • Did not reduce the salaries or wages of their employees by more than 25% and did not reduce the number or hours of their employees; or
  • Experienced reductions in business activity as a result of health directives related to COVID-19 and did not reduce the salaries or wages of their employees by more than 25%.

The applications and instructions are available in the links below:

If you have questions regarding this topic, please reach out to us at (469) 467-4660, or info@ahujaclark.com.