Forbes: Trump Signs New Bill – Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act – What You Need To Know

In a rare display of bipartisanship, on June 5, 2020, President Trump signed into law the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act (PPPFA) in an attempt to address many concerns expressed by the small business community around the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) aimed at providing COVID-19 relief.

On May 27, 2020, the House passed the PPPFA by 417-1 and the Senate approved it by unanimous consent on June 3. The new law addresses the following flaws in the original PPP program created under the CARES Act:

1. PPPFA CHANGES AMOUNT OF LOAN NEEDED FOR PAYROLL TO 60 PERCENT

The biggest complaint around the PPP loan program was that it required businesses to spend 75 percent of the loan on payroll. For those businesses shut down due to COVID-19, this meant playing the role of unemployment office, paying their workers to stay home and do no work. The PPPFA reduces the amount of the loan needed to be spent on payroll from 75 percent to 60 percent, thus increasing the amount of funds available for other expenses from 25% to 40%.

While this new breakdown was less than the 50-50 split business groups advocated for, it is still an improvement. However, the law does not change the list of expenses eligible for forgiveness. It still includes rent, mortgage payments, utilities, and interest on loans. Again, this is quite a restriction on businesses that need funds for inventory, personal protection equipment, expenses around remote working, and other needs. Business groups will continue to lobby to expand eligible expenses.

2. PPPFA EXTENDS TIME PERIOD TO USE FUNDS FROM 8 TO 24 WEEKS

The second biggest issue around PPP was that it required businesses to spend the funds in the eight-week period from the date funds were received. For a business shut down by government mandate, this amounted to spending funds when, perhaps, conserving them was in order. Business owners clamored to have the flexibility to spend the loan after reopening, especially on payroll when workers returned to work and were not sitting idle.

The PPPFA fixed this by extending the time period to spend the loans to 24 weeks. While businesses will still need to spend the money on payroll and authorized expenses, they now have until the end of 2020 to do so. Presumably, this will make receiving complete loan forgiveness more likely since the loan amount was based on one-month of 2019 payroll multiplied by 2.5, which equals approximately 10 weeks. Businesses should now have the flexibility to spend the PPP funds when they like for the remainder of the year. And, another positive caveat: the PPPFA also does not require businesses to wait for 24 weeks to apply for forgiveness and can still do so after eight weeks if they prefer.

For the full article from Forbes and more on what you need to know about the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act click here.