On June 17th, the SBA, in consultation with the Treasury Department, issued a revised, “borrower-friendly” Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan forgiveness application implementing the PPP Flexibility Act of 2020, signed into law by President Trump on June 5, 2020. In addition to revising the full forgiveness application, SBA also published a new EZ version of the forgiveness application that applies to borrowers that:
- Are self-employed and have no employees; OR
- Did not reduce the annual salary or hourly wage of any employee by more than 25%, and did not reduce the number of hours of their employees; OR
- Did not reduce the annual salary or hourly wage of any employee by more than 25%, and was unable to operate during the Covered Period at the same level of business activity as before February 15, 2020 as a result of health directives related to COVID-19.
The EZ application requires fewer calculations and less documentation for eligible borrowers. Details regarding the applicability of these provisions are available in the instructions to the new EZ application form.
Both applications give borrowers the option of using the original 8-week covered period (if their loan was made before June 5, 2020) or an extended 24-week covered period. These changes will result in a more efficient process and make it easier for businesses to realize full forgiveness of their PPP loan.