On Wednesday June 17th, SBA and Treasury issued a revised Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan forgiveness application implementing the extended 24-week “covered period” and the reduction in payroll cost limitation on forgiveness from 75% to 60% of costs, per the PPP Flexibility Act of 2020 enacted June 5, 2020. In addition to revising the full forgiveness application (and issuing revised instructions), SBA also published a new “EZ” version of the forgiveness application (and associated instructions) intended for borrowers that meet one of three requirements: 1) are self-employed and have no employees; 2) 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 3) 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%. While the “EZ version” of the application requires fewer calculations and less documentation for applicants seeking forgiveness, it still maintains numerous certification requirements and includes additional certifications for the borrower to attest to their eligibility to use the EZ application form. Both applications give borrowers the option of using either the original 8-week covered period (if their loan was made before June 5, 2020) or the extended 24-week covered period.
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