Taylor, Porter, Brooks & Phillips LLP issued the following announcement on June 19.
Taylor Porter Managing Partner Bob Barton and Taylor Porter Partner and Executive Committee Member Brett Furr joined IberiaBank Executive Vice President and Baton Rouge Market President John Everett to present a BRAC Business Webinar, “Last Call for the Paycheck Protection Program.” The webinar, sponsored by Horizon Financial Group, was held Thursday, June 18.
Applications for the federal Paycheck Protection Program must be made by June 30. The Program has been a lifeline to many businesses coping with lost revenue due to COVID-19 and its associated Stay at Home orders. Congress passed additional legislation about the Program in the first week of June, and the Small Business Administration seems to release new guidance every week.
Barton, Furr, and Everett discussed the PPP, its recent changes, guidance on the loan forgiveness rules, and the most recent Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act of 2020, signed into law by President Trump on June 5. The Act modified provisions related to the forgiveness of loans made to small businesses, including extending the covered period during which borrowers may use loan proceeds for eligible expenses from 8 weeks to 24 weeks or until the end of the year, whichever comes first, and borrowers have until December 31, 2020, to restore reductions in employee headcount and wages. Borrowers that received their PPP loans prior to the enactment of the Act, however, may choose to opt out of the extension and continue using the original 8-week covered period if the shorter covered period produces a more favorable result for the borrower.
On June 17, the SBA, in consultation with the Department of the Treasury, posted a revised, borrower-friendly PPP loan forgiveness application implementing the PPP Flexibility Act of 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 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%.
Original source can be found here.