SBA Announces Opening of Paycheck Protection Program Direct Forgiveness Portal
Aug 23, 2021
The SBA has published new guidance on PPP loan forgiveness on loans of $150,000 or less. A new portal has been established in which borrowers can request forgiveness directly w the agency instead of going through their lenders. The portal, launched in early August, is the latest attempt by the SBA to make the PPP loan forgiveness process easy and streamlined.
“The SBA’s new streamlined application portal will simplify forgiveness for millions of our smallest businesses — including many sole proprietors — who used funds from our Paycheck Protection Program loans to survive the pandemic,” said Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman. “The vast majority of businesses waiting for forgiveness have loans under $150,000. These entrepreneurs are busy running their businesses and are challenged by an overly complicated forgiveness process.
The SBA has also created a PPP customer service team that will answer questions and directly assist businesses with their loan forgiveness applications. This team can be reached at 877-552-2692, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST.
Click here to access the Paycheck Protection Program Direct Forgiveness Portal.
Categories: COVID-19
SBA Announces Restaurant Revitalization Fund Registration & Application Date
Apr 27, 2021
Today, the SBA announced it will open registration for the Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF) on Friday, April 30, 2021, at 9 am ET. Applications will officially be available on Monday, May 3, 2021, at noon ET and will remain open for any eligible entity until the funds are completely exhausted. In order to prepare for the launch of the RRF, the SBA recommends applicants become familiar with the application process by doing the following:
- Register in advance for an account at restaurants.sba.gov. This registration will go live on Friday, April 30, 2021, at 9 a.m. EDT.
- Review the official guidance, program guide, FAQs, and sample application published by the SBA.
- Prepare your required documentation.
- When the portal opens on Monday, May 3rd, 2021 work with your point-of-sale vendor or visit restaurants.sba.gov to submit your application. The SBA noted if you are working with a point-of-sale vendor, registration prior to submitting the application is not required.
The SBA will host two webinars on Tuesday, April 27, and Wednesday, April 28 covering the Restaurant Revitalization Fund program details and how to submit an application. To register for one of the webinars, click below:
While the webinars are limited to the first 20,000 registrants, recordings will be made available on the SBA’s YouTube Channel.
The SBA will be prioritizing funding applications from businesses owned by women, veterans, and socially and economically disadvantaged individuals for the first 21 days. However, all eligible applicants are strongly encouraged to submit their applications as soon as the portal opens. Once the 21 day priority period has passed, all eligible applications will receive funding on a first-come, first-serve basis.
If our team can be of assistance please reach out to us. We will continue to update and monitor this topic as more news is shared.
Connect With Us.
Kristin Metzger, CPA
Restaurant Practice Leader
kristin.metzger@wvco.com | 419.891.1040
Categories: COVID-19, Restaurant & Hospitality
Restaurant Revitalization Fund – Updated 4/20/21
Apr 20, 2021
Further details on the Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF) were released by the SBA late last week. Details regarding application requirements, eligibility, and a program guide were all included in this announcement. A sample application for the RRF can be found here.
Over the next two weeks and before the application launch, the SBA is initiating a 7-day pilot period for the RRF application portal. Selections for the pilot period will be made at random and the participants will be from existing borrowers of PPP funds in priority groups. The funds requested from these early participants will not be made available until the application portal is open to the general public. Also, the SBA is working on an application program interface to allow for the application to be embedded in POS systems such as Toast, Aloha, Clover, and Square. This interface will allow operators to be able to submit applications directly within the POS system.
The SBA is expected to announce the official application launch date soon. Once the application is open to the general public, the first 21 days will be reserve for the priority groups including businesses owned by women, veterans, and socially and economically disadvantaged individuals. Furthermore, there will be funds set aside for various revenue groupings. Currently, there is $5 billion set aside for applicants with 2019 gross receipts of less than $500,000. There is also $500 million set aside in grant money for applicants that had gross receipts less than $50,000. The fund also has set aside $4 billion for applicants that had 2019 gross receipts ranging from $500,000 and $1.5 million.
The National Restaurant Association recently published a Q&A which can be found here to help clarify several questions surrounding the RRF program. Some highlights and further information of additional points of clarification can be found below.
Covered Period
There is a discussion that the RRF covered period will potentially be extended for an additional 14 months, which would allow applicants to have until March 2023 to spend the grant money.
Eligibility
An entity that has permanently closed or has filed for bankruptcy protection (without an approved plan of reorganization) will not be eligible for the RRF grant. Furthermore, the eligibility requirements include demonstrating at least one-third of an entity’s revenue comes from the sale of food or beverages being consumed on-site.
Required Documentation
The following documents should be prepared for those entities entitled to RRF grants:
- An application form and the IRS Form 4506-T.
- Applicants in operation before January 1, 2019, must supply gross receipts for both 2019 and 2020
- Applicants in operation through part of 2019 must supply gross receipts for both 2019 and 2020
- Applicants that began operations on or between January 1, 2020, and March 10, 2021, and applicants that have not yet opened as of March 11, 2021, but have incurred eligible expenses, must supply documentation of both gross receipts and eligible expenses for the length of time in operation.
- Gross receipts and eligible expense documentation:
– Business tax returns (IRS Form 1120 or IRS 1120-S)
– IRS Forms 1040 Schedule C; IRS Forms 1040 Schedule F
– IRS Form 1065 (including K-1s)
– Bank statements
– Financial statements such as income statements or profit and loss statements
– Point of sale report(s), including IRS Form 1099-K
We will continue to monitor and provide updates on the RRF grant program as they are made available.
Connect With Us.
Kristin Metzger, CPA
Restaurant Practice Leader
kristin.metzger@wvco.com | 419.891.1040
Categories: COVID-19, Restaurant & Hospitality
PPP Deadline Extended Through May 2021
Mar 31, 2021
The PPP Extension Act of 2021 passed by Congress last Thursday has now been signed into law by President Biden. The PPP Extension Act of 2021 expands the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan application due date two months from March 31, 2021, to May 31, 2021. With nearly 190,000 pending applications, the law provides small businesses and nonprofits 60 additional days to apply for the roughly $79 billion of funds remaining. This extension comes just two weeks after the American Rescue Plan (ARP) made several changes to the PPP, which we previously outlined here.
An additional provision of the Act allows the Small Business Administration (SBA) until June 30, 2021, to process lender applications.
Categories: COVID-19
SBA Unveils New PPP Forgiveness Applications & Guidance
Jan 21, 2021
On Tuesday, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and Treasury released new PPP loan forgiveness guidance along with new forgiveness applications.
These applications include:
- PPP Loan Forgiveness Application Form 3508S – this new one-page application is for borrowers who received a PPP loan of $150,000 or less. While no supporting documentation is required to be submitted with the application, borrowers are advised to maintain payroll, nonpayroll, and other documents that could be requested during an SBA loan review or audit.
- Form 3508EZ – this streamlined application is for borrowers that meet certain safe harbors
- Form 3508 – the full application is for those who don’t qualify for using either of the previous two forms
- Form 3508D – this two-page document is to be submitted by certain individuals who are required to disclose a controlling interest in an entity applying for a PPP loan
Borrowers using Forms 3508 and 3508EZ must submit payroll and nonpayroll documentation when applying for loan forgiveness. The instructions included with these forms provide lists of the required documents.
In addition to the new forms, an interim final rule (IFR) was released which simplified previous loan forgiveness rules and integrated changes made by The Economic Aid to Hard-Hit Small Businesses, Nonprofits, and Venues Act (P.L. 116-260) which provided an additional $248 billion of funding to the PPP and allowed for a second-draw.
The SBA also noted it had approved roughly 60,000 PPP loan applications submitted by nearly 3,000 lenders for over $5 billion from the program’s re-opening through Jan. 17.
As always, we encourage you to connect with your William Vaughan Company advisor with questions on how this may impact your individual circumstances, or check out our COVID-19 Resource Center for additional insights.
Categories: COVID-19