Stimulus Update: More Funds and Are We Getting Checks?
Here is a quick download of everything happening in the stimulus world as of 6/16/2020.
EIDL
Applications for Economic Injury Disaster Loans and Advance have reopened! Apply here.
As a refresher, the loans are detailed here. Non-forgivable at 3.75% for over 30 years!
The advances are $1k per employee and are not to be paid back, however if you have a PPP loan this will lessen your forgivable amount. However, if you don’t have the PPP loan it’s a no-brainer to apply for this!
Also, you CAN accept the grant and deny the loan.
PPP
There are still funds available for those who have not yet applied. Try Lendio or Paypal if your current bank doesn’t offer them.
The House and Senate passed an amendment to the CARES Act which adjusted the following:
WHATS CHANGED
Deadline - changed from a deadline of June 30th to December 31st, 2020. So no more fears about spending or using by June 30th.
Maturity - instead of the loan being 2 years, its 5 years. Yay!
Covered Period - changed from 8 weeks to 24 weeks
Percentage of payroll/nonpayroll changed - You can use the funds on up to 60% of payroll (rather than the previous 75%) and the remaining 40% on items like mortgage interest, rent and utilities.
Safe Harbor for Full Time Employee requirement - they added language to make it easier to qualify. You now have until 12/31/20 to rehire back. Or if you can’t do that, you must be able to document that you had an inability to rehire similarly qualified employees OR that you couldn’t return to the same level of business due to compliance with the health authorities listed here.
Repayment Rules - You start repayments once forgiveness is determined (this is a lot sooner than the 6 month rule they talked about) OR after 10 months of the end of the covered period if no application for forgiveness is received.
Payroll Tax Deferment - they clarified that those participating in PPP loans are able to also participate in deferral of tax payments.
Limits on paying owners - this HASN’T changed. You still have the same 8/52 weeks limit.
There is extremely limited guidance on this right now, and no revised forgiveness application.
The good news is applications for forgiveness are not due for a few months. I recommend using the funds as you normally planned (now you have more time) and hold off on applying for forgiveness for weeks or months until we get official guidance.
EZ Form Guide found here.
PUA (unemployment) Updates
Several states are still slow to get PUA claims out to applicants. Generally speaking, I recommend continuing to claim weeks eligible even if you haven’t received anything yet.
Second Stimulus Check Update
After the HEROES Act was passed by the House and stopped by the Senate, there have been discussions on the next stimulus package.
Here is a summary of where the House, Senate and White House stand:
The House – currently in favor of a stimulus check
The Senate - wants a smaller package less than 1 trillion and they want this stimulus to be the last one
The White House – they want another stimulus check, payroll tax credits and give people incentive to go back to work
Due to the above, its highly likely that we will receive another stimulus check – and its leaning towards the $1,200 mark again (similar to the first round).
Timeline: Since there is a recess starting on July 4th for two weeks, its anticipated that it could be approved by end of July.
This means we still have quite a bit of time before people are to receive any funds.
Photo credit: Teresa Nunez of Nunez Photography
