Step-by-Step Guide to the PPP Loan Forgiveness Application
On June 16, 2020, the SBA issued their brand-new PPP Loan Forgiveness guidelines and form. This included a relaxing of the small business restrictions to rehire employees. Now, it it easier for small businesses to get full forgiveness even if they cannot rehire all of their employees. Watch the below video for complete details or read below and then use these links to access the PPP Forgiveness Application and PPP Forgiveness Application Instructions
How to Get Your PPP Loan Full Forgiven
On the PPP Loan Forgiveness Application, your lender or bank will mainly care about 1 number: The number you put on Line 11 is the amount of your PPP loan that will be forgiven.
As exampled in the video, if you borrowed $100,000, you of course, want line 11 to show $100,000.
First, you'll need to make sure that at least 60% of the loan went toward payroll. You need to add these numbers on the forgiveness form.
Second, you'll need to verify that you meet the full time equivalent employee quotient. That number should be "1" on your form. However, you now have 3 options to meet that requirement.
The New PPP Loan Employee Rehire Options
Here is the good news that the SBA just clarified. To meet the rehire requirement you now have 3 options, 2 of them are "Safe Harbor" options.
The first is, is you rehire all your employees or never had any employee adjustments, you're fine. Your FTE quotient will be 1 and you won't have to take an adjustment in loan forgiveness. (Assuming you meet all of the other requirements)
The second is, the safe harbor rule that allows you to have until the end of 2020 to bring back your full-time employees.
The third - and most important - is the second safe harbor rule. It basically says this:
If your level of business activity has declined due to guidelines put in place by federal government agencies, such as sanitation, social distancing, and other health and safety guidelines for workers and consumers.
If that applies to you - and by our count if applies to virtually all businesses - you can self-certify this on the PPP loan forgiveness and you can bypass the rehire requirement.