The Paycheck Protection Program is back.
Between April and August, the program distributed $523 billion in forgivable government-backed loans to 5.2 million small businesses to help them keep paying their workers through the pandemic’s economic devastation.
Now it’s restarting, after Congress included $284 billion in new funding in the stimulus package it passed in December. Crucially, the program will give the hardest-hit businesses a chance at a second loan.
P.P.P. 2.0 makes other changes, too, including to eligibility and to limits for some loan sizes. Here’s what you need to know.
Who is eligible?
The new funding is available to both first-time applicants and returning borrowers.
For first-time applicants, most of the original rules apply. A company or nonprofit organization must generally have 500 or fewer workers, although companies in some industries can qualify with more employees. The applicants also must certify that “current economic uncertainty makes this loan request necessary” to support their continuing operations.
More groups are now eligible because of the recent stimulus bill, including nonprofit housing cooperatives, newspapers, broadcasters and local chambers of commerce.
Applicants must have been in operation on Feb. 15, 2020, to qualify. Self-employed business owners, including independent contractors, are also eligible for loans, but a rule imposed by the Small Business Administration requires sole proprietorships to have shown a profit on their 2019 tax return to qualify.
The rules are more strict for those seeking a second loan.
Larger business are not eligible: Second-loan applicants must have 300 or fewer workers. (Publicly traded companies, political lobbyists and members of Congress are barred from receiving a second loan.)
They also have to show a certain amount of hardship: a 25 percent drop in gross receipts between comparable quarters in 2019 and 2020. They must also show that they used all of the money from the first loan in allowable ways.
Learn more about the Small Business Administration Paycheck Protection Program
Find information about the PPP, whether it’s your first time to participate or if you previously received assistance.
Click on any of the following links to find more helpful resources. Please note that you are leaving the FB&T website and going to a third-party host.
Please note that this information is subject to change as a result of evolving legislative developments and government guidance.
