Hot Topic Tuesday — SBA Hosts Webinar on PPP Forgiveness

September 8, 2020

By Caity Roach 
Contributing Editor, Hot Topic Tuesday

Hot Topic Tuesday — SBA Hosts Webinar on PPP Forgiveness

On September 3, 2020, SBA and U.S. Treasury staff hosted an “Ask the Regulators” session entitled Basics of PPP Loan Forgiveness and the SBA PPP Loan Forgiveness Platform. During the video presentation, Bill Briggs, Ginger Allen, Marty Andrews, and Cailin Schmeer provided an overview of PPP loan forgiveness, demonstrated the proper way to use the loan forgiveness platform, and answered commonly asked questions. 

Here are the highlights from the presentation:

• Business rent or mortgage payments are eligible costs if the lease or mortgage was in effect prior to February 15, 2020. However, if the terms were renegotiated after February 15, 2020, they are still eligible.
  
  
• The borrower must submit a forgiveness application within 10 months of the end of the covered period. Once the borrower submits a forgiveness application, the lender must review and submit a forgiveness decision to the SBA within 60 days. The SBA then has 90 days to make a determination on loan forgiveness.
  
  
• A borrower may submit a 3508EZ if (1) they are self-employed, (2) did not reduce annual salary or hourly wages of any employee more than 25% and did not reduce the number of employees, or (3) Did not reduces wages more than 25% and were unable to operate due to COVID-19 restrictions.
  
  
• The covered period does not end on the date the loan is used exhausted.
  
  
• The lender should not calculate forgiveness deductions based on an EIDL grant. SBA will perform the calculation.

The forgiveness platform may be accessed at forgiveness.sba.gov. The SBA recommends that lenders log into the forgiveness portal and review all of the documents and videos in the “Forgiveness Platform Resource Center” prior to submitting a forgiveness decision.