18. PPP's 8 week Period Becomes Much More Flexible

June 8, 2020

Last Friday, June 5, H.R. 7010, the “Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Flexibility Act of 2020,” became law. This law will benefit roasters who have qualified for PPP loans because it makes sweeping revisions to the original terms of the loan. Forgiveness of loans is now so flexible, it's practically guaranteed.

Want to listen in on a webinar with up-to-date-details on how to apply for forgiveness of your PPP loan? Check out the free Small Business Association of Michigan (SBAM)'s webinar: Thursday, June 11, 10:00am EST: PPP Status, Updates and a Detailed Walkthrough of Forgiveness (Click here to register)

The most significant changes HB7010 incurs are as follows:

1. Businesses have 24 weeks instead of 8 weeks to accrue expenses that qualify for forgiveness. Summarized, can you rack up enough expenses over the last 6 months of 2020 to match what you spent in the first 2 months of 2020? If yes, you've hit one of the two major criteria for loan forgiveness.
2. The deadline for businesses to rehire workers, matching the headcount (full-time equivalent) they had at the end of February, has been extended from June 30 to December 31. Can you arrange that on December 31, 2020, you have matched or exceeded the number of employees that you had at the end of February 2020? If you answer yes, you've hit the second major criteria for forgiveness.
3. The requirement that at least 75% of the proceeds be used toward payroll expenses has been lowered to 60%. Now up to 40% can be used for rent, utilities and mortgage interest. This is important for roasters for whom rent is a serious amount of their monthly expense.
4. The original PPP rules allowed partial loan forgiveness if a company used less than 75% of the loan for payroll, but the bill as it passed states that none of the loan will be forgiven if the new 60% threshold is not met. The entire loan will need to be repaid if payroll expenses are less than 60%.
5. The payback period on any unforgiven loan amounts can be extended from 2 years to 5 years. This would have been more important back when it seemed like some parts of many loans would not be forgiven. But now that almost everyone's loan will be forgivable, this improvement in borrowing terms is nearly meaningless.
6. Bill 7010 also allows loan forgiveness recipients to defer their payroll taxes. Borrowers may defer the employer share of Social Security taxes (6.2%), regardless of whether the borrower receives forgiveness or not. 50% of deferred Social Security tax would be due in 2021, with the other 50% due in 2022.

Regarding Flexible Forgiveness:
The Small Business Administration (SBA) and US Treasury has recognized over the past weeks that the stipulation that the PPP's eight-week period must start the day the loan is disbursed, and end eight weeks later was overly restrictive. Now they are giving every business that qualified for a PPP loan 6 months to spend the loan disbursement on qualified expenses, and only 60% of those expenses have to be payroll. Up to 40% of the loan amount may be spent on rent, utilities (including phone costs) and mortgage interest. In other words, Treasury has basically made it pretty easy for businesses to get 100% forgiveness. 

HOW to correctly apply for that forgiveness is no longer clear, however, for many businesses. 

"When you change the rules of the game in the middle of the game, a lot of things become confusing."  ~ CPA Accountant commenting on HB7010

1. What if you finish using up all of your loan funds in a period that is more than 8 weeks but not 24 weeks? For example, you received the funds on April 4, and you finish using them on July 15? Can you apply for forgiveness and be done with it? Or are you forced to wait until after December 31st? Treasury has not yet issued guidance on this.

2. How do single-member LLCs calculate payroll for forgiveness now? Do they take 24/52 of the 2019 Schedule C net income? Previously they were required to calculate payroll as 8/52 of 2019 net income.

3. What if you hired back all your workers at the beginning of June, "playing by the rules" as they were initially written, and now you have to lay them off in July because you are still not open, and cash flow, including the PPP funds, have run out. Does laying them off like this count against your loan forgiveness?

12. Roaster Experiences with PPP, EIDL and other grants

Today we'd like to share a few of the roaster experiences we've heard.

Small roaster in SE Michigan has 1 cafe and 15 - 17 employees. All but 4 of them were laid-off at the beginning of the crisis. This business owner (so far) has chosen to:
* Applied for the EIDL Advance grant (no word on that yet)
* Applied for a Wayne County small business emergency relief grant and was awarded a couple thousand from this fund. This was a great relief as it basically paid one more month's rent. Her landlord was unwilling to consider any forgiveness or delay of the rent schedule.
* Did NOT apply for the PPP. Finds the benefit may not be worth the hassle on a number of levels. Not sure about loan forgiveness. Not sure about rules regarding bringing back employees when she's not sure she can employ them safely. Not certain the 8 week forgiveness period is long enough for her to put them on payroll if they are not working.

What impresses me about this roaster, like many I have talked to, is the agility she has shown adapting very quickly to the changing situation. She innovated continuously for weeks, for example, creating a contact-free take out window and beefing up on-line ordering operations. After the store fully shut down, they promoted a weekend take-out event that was very successful.

Another small roaster, south of the Detroit metro area, has one cafe. They remain open for take-out with reduced hours staying open only from 8am - 1pm. On April 14 they launched a web-store for their bags of beans for the first time. The owner's daughter helped him get that launched. The owner applied for and received about $5,000 from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation's emergency fund which are state funds.

A roaster with two cafes, one in Detroit and one in a northern suburb, chose this path:
* Applied for the EIDL and have received the $10,000 advance.
* Applied for the PPP but have not received funds from that one (yet).
* Applied for city-level grants and successfully received funding from those.
* Has been able to make arrangements for some leniency with landlords.
This roaster commented that while his spending is way down now, he's only now getting through paying for bills incurred in March just before the "shelter-in-place" orders were issued.

A St. Louis roaster with three locations has one of them open for pick-up, 8am - 3pm, and the other two are temporarily closed. The situation is dynamic for them, as with everyone, but when we talked on April 7th, the status was:
* Applied for the PPP
* Still considering applying for EIDL and local business emergency grants.
* Considering other SBA loan programs, not just the emergency loans, to help the business expand.
I was struck with this roaster's determination to not give up on business development plans. Slow down, perhaps, but not give up! They also promoted a Saturday take-out event at a store that sold out three hours before they had planned to end!

A New York roaster with 20 stores across Manhattan and Queens has about 200 employees. All stores have been closed and all but a core team of about 5 - 7 people had to be laid-off, which was "devastating" they told me. On top of that, their head of human resources moved to a different company in March and has not yet been replaced. They are still roasting for their wholesale accounts and on-line sales. The representative I talked to was confident that all government programs were being considered for possible fit, but was not aware of which, if any, SBA programs were being accessed. He shared that the company was serious about offering all employees job security. They've sent repeated messages to the laid off staff that the company will hire them back as soon as circumstances allow.

We hope this summary of economic and business realities of different roasters gives some reassurance, "you are not alone"! Pull up those boot-straps!

9. CPA Advice for Small Roasters

April 7, 2020

We are NOT a CPA! But today's blogpost
 includes a link where you can listen
to one!

HOT TIP  - FREE CPA ADVICE!

Today's SBAM daily briefing was excellent! They had the Michigan CPA Association (MiCPA) on the call, advising  small business owners as if they were their client. A great resource for small businesses with limited access to such professionals.  CLICK HERE to listen to the recording. The CPA is interviewed in the first 20 minutes of this 30 minute briefing.

James Lopiccolo (CPA) said they're telling their clients, "maximize the funds you can get on PPP." Even if you don't have enough payroll during the 8 weeks to have your loan 100% forgiven, you can prepay with no penalty if you truly do not want any debt.

If you can stomach the debt for 2 years, the advantages you have are:

1) first payment deferred for 6 months 
2) an unheard of low interest rate of 1% with so few hurdles (guarantees, ineligibility for other credit, etc.)

Other news today for government programs:

• U.S. Congress is considering another large aid package. This is a relief, as it takes off some of the pressure on banks and businesses to be "the first" to get their Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan application completed. (Click here for info on PPP.)
• I learned the state programs that have been funneled through the Economic Development agencies (like SPARK in Ann Arbor, MI) are then turned over to county economic development offices. While I am in Michigan, I can imagine this may be true in many states. I applied for Michigan's "Resiliency Fund" last week. Today I was contacted by email and then phone by a county administrator requesting further documentation. I was skeptical at first, being concerned about scammers looking for my tax information, but everything checked out. Indeed, it appears the county government is expected to follow through on finalizing state-level "Resiliency Fund" applications.

Keep at it everyone! There's relief coming. You've got this.