We have previously posted about the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) that was created by the U.S. Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Like many rushed legislative programs, PPP had issues from the outset. Enter the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act of 2020 (“PPPFA”), signed on June 5, 2020 to amend some parts of the CARES Act that pertain to the PPP. UPDATE: As of July 4, 2020, the PPP program remains open to new applications through August 8, 2020, and there were $130 Billion in funds remaining to be claimed by employers of almost all sizes. (Read on for more on that.)
The Small Business Association, in conjunction with the Treasury, issued an Interim Final Rule conforming its previous rule to the PPPFA and attempting to clarify some key points. As described below, some important questions under the PPPFA remain unanswered even by the new Interim Final Rule.
The most obvious purpose of the PPPFA is to extend the “covered period” in which PPP funds can be expended on allowed costs, such as payroll, rent and utilities. Whereas the PPP loans were limited to an 8 week “covered period” of expenses, the PPPFA extends the covered period to 24 weeks, or until December 31, 2020, whichever comes first. This extension applies to all PPP loans that originated after June 5, 2020, but employers who took loans prior to that date have an option to maintain the original 8 week period or extend to the 24 week covered period.
The election between the 8 week covered period and the 24 week covered period will have significant ramifications for earlier loan recipients. The election between an 8 week covered period or a 24 week covered period is binary, and only funds spent during the elected covered period may be counted toward loan forgiveness. A loan recipient may not, for example, choose a 16 week covered period, but there does not appear to be anything restricting a loan recipient from electing a 24 week covered period but spending all the PPP funds in 16 weeks, for example.
The text of the PPPFA does not prevent a loan recipient from applying for loan forgiveness at any time that its PPP funds have been exhausted on covered expenses, or alternatively waiting up to 10 months after the expiration of the coverage period. However, the language of the Treasury Department’s Interim Final Rule implies that a loan recipient must wait until its covered period has ended before applying for loan forgiveness. Hopefully, the Treasury Department will clarify this soon, particularly because the date of the employer’s Loan Forgiveness Application can be important.
Employers should recall from our earlier post that if employees or wages are too drastically cut, there will be a reduction of the amount of loan forgiveness the employer will receive under PPP. So the date on which that measurement is made may be very significant if the employer’s workforce or salaries have changed. At present it appears that the SBA will measure workforce and salary levels as of the date of the Loan Forgiveness Application or December 31, 2020, whichever comes first, and will compare that against the employer’s average payroll during the original measurement period of February 15 to April 26, 2020. There remains some possibility that the SBA will require that the same level of employees and wages also be maintained as of December 31, 2020, but if so exactly how that might work is not clear and should be the subject of further Treasury Department rulings.
If the employer has had layoffs or wage cuts, PPPFA extends the date by which loan recipients must rehire full time equivalent employees and eliminate salary/wage cuts from the previous deadline of June 30, 2020 to December 31, 2020. Failure to rehire and restore wages will result in a decrease of the amount of loan forgiveness for the employer. But if a loan recipient can show in good faith (a) an inability to rehire individuals who were employees of the eligible recipient, and (b) an inability to hire similarly situated qualified employees, by the December 31, 2020 deadline, there will be no corresponding reduction in loan forgiveness for failure hire/re-hire such employees. It is not yet clear whether this same exception may apply to salary/wage cuts. Whether the deadline has any impact if a loan forgiveness application was made prior to this last day has yet to be explained by the Treasury Department.
Loan recipients now have up to 10 months from the date the covered period ends to apply for loan forgiveness. Failure to do so within the 10 months allowed will result in denial of loan forgiveness and the loan recipient must repay principal, interest and fees on the loan. If the loan is not forgiven, its term is now 5 years for all loans originating on or after June 5, 2020. Earlier loans retain a 2 year term, but lenders and loan recipients are free to agree to amend the duration to 5 years.
Another prominent feature of the PPPFA is that loan recipients must use 60% of the loan amount for payroll in order to be eligible for loan forgiveness, whereas the original PPP required 75% of the proceeds to be used for payroll. The PPPFA appears to make this 60% standard absolute – if it is not met, then there will be no loan forgiveness. But the U.S. Treasury Department’s Interim Final Rule, and the revised Loan Forgiveness Application, appears to disagree and instead provides that if a loan recipient does not use at least 60% of the loan amount for payroll, then the loan forgiveness will be decreased proportionately with the shortfall of expenditures on payroll. This interpretation is more in line with the original PPP’s standard, but it remains uncertain whether the U.S. Treasury Department can effectively impose this standard over statutory language that appears to say otherwise.
As the name of the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act suggests, and as the Interim Final Rule explicitly states, the goal of the PPPFA is to provide employers with more flexibility when using PPP loan funds. Because $130 Billion in allotted loan funds went unclaimed at the end of the original and once-extended application period, on July 4, 2020 President Trump signed Congress’ unanimously-approved amendment to extend the last day to apply for any PPP loan to August 8, 2020.
The updated and revised PPP loan application can be found here. Conkle, Kremer & Engel attorneys stay current on the latest amendments in order to help business clients navigate the maze and maximize the benefits available to them under PPP loans and other government COVID-19 relief programs.
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