Tag Archives: financial relief

COVID-19 Financial Relief, Education, POS - Point of Sale, QuickBooks Software, Tips

Important Updates On Restaurant Revitalization Fund From 4/6/21 IRC Webinar

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Spinning J Bakery & Soda Fountain, Chicago, IL – photo credit Clayton Hauck

(For an overview of the new Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF), please see my recent blog post.)

Today I attended an excellent zoom “roundtable” hosted by the Independent Restaurant Coalition.  Erika Polmar did a great job presenting, and Devita Davison monitored chat — they covered a lot of ground and answered many questions.

It was not recorded, as it was designed for participants to ask specific questions that may have revealed personal info. But there is a second session happening tomorrow (Wednesday 4/7) that I strongly encourage you to attend. Type your question in the chat and they will address it, or email questions@restaurantcoalition.com — they also have an FAQ at saverestaurants.com/resources that you can also download here.

There are still outstanding questions — see my notes below — but my main takeaway is that as a CPA firm, we are going to be pivoting to try to prepare draft 2020 tax returns for all restaurant clients before the program opens in the next two weeks. This will be a challenge, as we are simultaneously working on Employee Retention Credit calculations, 1Q 2021 estimates, and corporate tax returns; but we’re doing everything we can to make sure our clients have both 2019 & 2020 tax returns — at least in draft format — in time to apply for this grant the day it opens.

Please remember to sign up for the session tomorrow. It will be worth your hour of attendance.

My notes from today’s session:

  • They are expecting guidance at the end of this week (4/9) and a draft application at the beginning of next week (4/12).
    – They think the process will open end of next week (4/16) or beginning of the following week (4/19).
  • There are funds set aside for 60 days for businesses with <$500k in receipts.
    – Also funds set aside for women-owned, veteran-owned, and “disadvantaged” groups and first 21 days of the application period are specific for them.
     – We don’t know if they will change the 51% ownership rule to 50% or not yet, but it is under consideration.
  • If you opened before 2019, take 2019 revenue minus 2020 revenue, minus PPP loan. That’s the grant amount.
    – If you opened in 2019, take average monthly revenue from 2019 and divide by 12, then do the same as above.
    – If you opened in 2020, funding amount is equal to eligible costs incurred minus revenue received.
  • You may use the grant for expenses incurred during the period of 2/15/2020-12/31/2021 for: payroll capped at $100k per EE, benefits, mortgage, rent, utilities, maintenance, build-out for outdoor/indoor safe dining, supplies, food & beverage inventory, operating expenses.
    – May be extending it through 12/31/23 soon; hopefully before application goes live.
    – Cannot double-dip and use funds for anything you paid for with PPP, EIDL or other federal funds.
    – Very likely but not confirmed that Owner’s Draw will be considered an eligible operating expense.
  • Documents needed to prove revenue loss — must be able to show revenue loss between the two years (or alternatively as above if opened after 1/1/19):
    – Preferably 2019 & 2020 tax returns – may use certified P/L statement or documentation from Point of Sale system for 2020 instead, if tax return is not done.
    – Acceptable documents would be as follows (keeping in mind that if you use anything other than a tax return, a human being will have to review your application (rather than a computer) and that will slow it down:
     * Business tax returns (IRS Form 1120 or IRS 1120-S);
     * IRS Forms 1040 Schedule C; IRS Forms 1040 Schedule F;
     * For a partnership: partnership’s IRS Form 1065 (including K-1s);
     * Bank statements;
     * Externally or internally prepared financial statements such as Income Statements or Profit and Loss Statements;
     * Point of sale report(s), including IRS Form 1099-K.
  • For hybrid businesses like bowling alleys, RRF revenue replacement will only be for food/beverage portion of business (not wholesale or entertainment). 
    – F+B revenue has to be 33% or greater to qualify as a “restaurant”.
  • You may not use the RRF to pay off any other federal program, like the EIDL or PPP. (This might change.)
    – You CAN use it to pay off other debt, just not federal debt.
  • They are looking into payments to related parties like self-rental to see whether they will qualify or not.
  • If you close your doors temporarily, you can get RRF — if you closed permanently, you are not eligible. If you close permanently while using RRF money, you will have to repay it.
  • This money is very likely to run out quickly. Apply the moment it goes live on Day One.
    – The SBA will then hopefully go back to Congress to say “here’s how many applications for $X we have in the queue; please replenish the fund so we can continue funding the requests.” So even if you apply “too late”, there’s hope.

Questions I still have:

  • Will the Employee Retention Credit (ERC) and FFCRA Emergency Leave Credits count as gross receipts? Or will they be exempted like the PPP funds? If treated like PPP funds, will they have to be subtracted from the RRF grant amount?
  • Is other financial relief — local and industry grants — considered as part of revenue?
  • For a restaurant that has no outdoor space to build out for safe dining; could they use RRF money to buy/outfit a food truck so they could use it in place of outdoor dining?

If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. Ths allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.

COVID-19 Financial Relief, Education, Tips

Restaurant Revitalization Fund Opens Soon: April 2021

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4/7/2021 UPDATE: I attended yesterday’s Independent Restaurant Coalition zoom call, and wrote up notes here. Please give it a read after you’ve taken a look at the blog post below, as it answers some FAQs.

4/1/2021 UPDATE: the SBA just announced that RRF applicants will not need a DUNS number or SAM account. This is a change from March, when it was expected that applications would require this process as they currently do under the Shuttered Venues Operators (SVO) grant program.  The shift by SBA recognized the significant demand for the program – up to hundreds of thousands of applicants are expected.

From the start of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), my small business clients — specifically the restaurants, bars, cafes and caterers — were confused and frustrated. We put so much time and effort into applying for PPP funds, working through the tortuous planning for spending in a way that would lead to 100% forgiveness, and had practically nothing left to show for it. Shuttered or take-out only, there was simply not enough revenue coming in to support the extremely high labor, inventory, and overhead costs typical of the industry. Had it not been for state and local grants, most of them would have had to close their doors permanently.

They weren’t alone — in fact, restaurant lobbyists have been working for many months on crafting financial relief legislation that suits the specific needs of the hospitality industry. And I’m amazed to say — they did a great job, and most of it made it into the final law. Unlike the constantly-changing mess that the PPP has been, this new program is thought-through, carefully-written, and has clearly learned from PPP’s mistakes. (It’s also taken the better part of a year to bring it into existence, so there are two sides to this coin, as is usually the case.) And it will be opening soon.

The Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF), as it is now known, was signed into law as part of the recent American Rescue Plan Act. Unlike the PPP, which was based on payroll costs, the RRF is structured to disburse tax-free federal grants in the amount of a restaurant’s “pandemic-related revenue loss“.

Grants are calculated by subtracting 2020 receipts from those of 2019. PPP funds received will offset (reduce) the grant amount, but those funds will not be considered part of gross receipts. The total grant amount for an eligible business and any affiliated businesses is capped at $10 million and is limited to $5 million per physical location of the business.

An example set of calculation scenarios from the National Restaurant Association:

In addition to basing the award amount on revenue loss rather than any other measure, other features of the RRF program that seem a better fit for restaurants are the flexibility on how the funds can be spent and over how long (Feb 15, 2020-Dec 31, 2021). Categories of eligible costs include:

  • payroll;
  • principal or interest on mortgage obligations;
  • rent;
  • utilities;
  • maintenance (including construction to accommodate outdoor seating);
  • supplies such as protective equipment and cleaning materials;
  • normal food and beverage inventory;
  • operational expenses;
  • and many other expenses that the SBA determines to be essential to maintaining operations.

Another area where there is a great deal of flexibility — eligible entities can be “a restaurant, food stand, food truck, food cart, caterer, saloon, inn, tavern, bar, lounge, brewpub, tasting room, taproom, licensed facility or premise of a beverage alcohol producer where the public may taste, sample, or purchase products, or other similar place of business in which the public or patrons assemble for the primary purpose of being served food or drink.”

There will be an initial 21-day period when the SBA will prioritize awarding grants for businesses owned by women, veterans, or socially and economically disadvantaged individuals.

To learn more, I strongly encourage you to read the Independent Restaurant Coalition’s FAQ, and attend one of their upcoming zoom “round table” webinars. The next ones will be held on Tuesday, April 6th at 12pm ET / 9am PT, and Wednesday, April 7th at 11am ET / 8am PT.

It’s looking like the program will be opening up in the next few weeks, and there are steps you can take now to prepare.

First and foremost: get educated:
– Register for one of the IRC zoom round-table webinars and review their other resources, including an excellent FAQ.
– Watch the most recent National Restaurant Association (NRA) webinar (keeping in mind that the DUNS and SAM are no longer required) and visit RestaurantsAct.com/rrf for more resources, including a fact sheet.
– There are also many articles on the topic, including this extensive one from Forbes.

4/1/2021 UPDATE: In today’s AICPA Town Hall, they shared that the SBA has announced that RRF applicants should prepare with the following next steps —

The “checklist similar to SVOG” refers to another program, the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant — their checklist can be found on a download via the SBA website. We expect a similar one to be released specifically for RRF soon, but this is probably a good guideline.

I’m looking forward to seeing at least one Covid-19 financial relief program play out right and run smoothly — which I recognize may be too much to ask, but for the sake of all our beloved community watering holes, gathering spots, and the places that nourish our bodies and souls, I will keep my fingers crossed. They’ve been through so much already and I would love to see this program help them make it to the finish line.

If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. Ths allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.

COVID-19 Financial Relief, Education, IRS, Site News, Tips

Tips To Maximize 2020 Employee Retention Credit (ERC) & PPP Interaction

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I recently wrote about reasons to hold off on Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) forgiveness applications for the time being. Among them is the complex interaction between PPP and the Employee Retention Credit (ERC), which previously was not permitted as an option for financial relief for those that had received PPP funding.

Because ERC is now available for small businesses who have accepted PPP funds — but not for the same payroll dollars (no double-dipping) — there are some pretty complicated calculations that, if done right, could generate a great deal of financial relief to a lot of independent business-owners in need.

The IRS came out with guidance on March 1. The Journal of Accountancy summarizes:

The notice explains (1) who are eligible employers; (2) what constitutes full or partial suspension of trade or business operations; (3) what is a significant decline in gross receipts; (4) what is the maximum amount of an eligible employer’s employee retention credit; (5) qualified wages; (6) how an eligible employer claims the employee retention credit; and (7) how an eligible employer substantiates the claim for the credit.

Summary of the 2020 Employee Retention Credit

As a reminder, the 2020 ERC is a payroll tax credit available to business owners whose operations have been fully or partially suspended by government order, or who have seen a drop in income of more than 50% compared to the same quarter in the previous year. (Note: in the new IRS guidance it also states that if “the business’s suppliers are unable to make deliveries of critical goods or materials due to a governmental order”, your business may be eligible for ERC — even though there was no governmental order in your area.)

The credit comprises 50% of up to $10,000 in wages to each employee. The credit cannot be taken on wages that were paid for by PPP funds — but as long as there is no double-dipping, PPP recipients can claim other wages for the purpose of ERC.

The ERC is claimed as a reduction of payroll taxes on quarterly Form 941 (or a prepaid refund on Form 7200). The IRS updated the form on July 1, and a handy breakdown of the new lines can be found here. There are different rules for eligible businesses to be able to claim the 2021 ERC moving forward — a topic for another day — but this post concerns the opportunity to “scoop up” payroll dollars from 2020 that would have been eligible for ERC had it not been for the PPP Loan. These can be claimed by filing an amended Form 941 for each relevant quarter.

Keep in mind that the ERC is complex, and this blog post will not walk you through the specifics — I’ve included a list of some of my favorite resources below. The goal here is to share the steps in our firm’s approach toward these calculations for our clients.

So let’s start with a couple of things to be aware of before we go through the steps that my firm plans to walk through come May/June.

  1. First, the ERC is not generally as valuable as the PPP. It is a payroll tax credit, rather than actual cash funding (though you can file for an advance on it).
  2. And the ERC did not get the benefit of having Congress declare its related expenses deductible, like the special treatment that PPP costs received. So you will lose all the deductions for the payroll tax dollars on which you receive the credit. Deductions aren’t worth as much as credits, so you still come out ahead. But if you’re choosing PPP or ERC for a given payroll dollar, you want to pick the PPP first — up to the minimum 60% requirement for that loan to be forgiven.
  3. However, once you’ve reached that 60% requirement, if you can use non-payroll costs for the remaining 40%, then you “free up” the rest of the payroll dollars to be used for ERC. So you’ll want to work on PPP1 forgiveness applications at the same time as 2020 ERC calculations — they are related to each other, and changing one will potentially affect the other.
  4. But what does this mean for companies filing income tax returns for 2020? Businesses that later decide to retroactively claim the ERC will need to file amended income tax returns — or preferably, put their income tax returns on extension until they have claimed the ERC for 2020. We had previously thought that cash-basis filers could potentially claim the income for the credit and the associated reduction in payroll costs on the 2021 income tax return, but that was ruled out with the most recent IRS guidance.

Steps to Evaluate Payroll for PPP vs ERC

The hope is that in most cases you’ll be able to do Steps One and Two and skip the rest. But just in case, Steps Three and Four will take you the rest of the way there.

Step One
When figuring out how to combine ERC and PPP, literally make a calendar for each client and work from that.

a) Determine dates for which you qualify for ERC, based on either:
– the full or partial shut-down period, or
– a gross receipts decline of 50% over the same quarter in 2019
(the latter qualifies you from the beginning of that quarter to the end of the quarter where receipts go back up to 80%)

Keep in mind that both scenarios may apply, but for different periods — for example, the business was shut down on 3/18/20, and then later fully reopened… and then the 50% revenue drop started in the following quarter.

Note: you may want to find out the exact dates that your client’s city/county/state decreed full-capacity indoor dining was illegal — for those dates, restaurants qualify for ERC based on “full/partial shut-down” rules. If your client is a gym, bar, or other type of non-essential business that had hours limited, find out the exact full-or-partial shut-down dates decreed for that industry in that specific area.

b) Determine PPP covered period. For most folks, this will be the 24 weeks starting on the date of loan fund disbursement.

c) Determine the “bookend” periods — the time both before and after the PPP covered period; for the timeframe when the client qualified for ERC but was not in the PPP realm.

Step Two
You may be able to skip the rest of the steps by eyeballing whether you’re able to claim the entire 2020 ERC of $5k per employee (on the first 10k paid to each) all in one quarter — for most businesses this would usually be the final quarter of the year. Then, not only will you not have to worry about overlapping PPP and ERC payroll dollars, but you also will be able to claim this through most payroll companies and not have to manually amend the 4Q 2020 Form 941. Double-bonus!

If not, then see if you can get the full $5k per employee ERC (again, on the first 10k paid to each) using only the periods before and after the PPP1 covered period. You at least eliminate the need to juggle the PPP payroll dollars along with the ERC payroll dollars during the covered period.

Step Three
If that’s not an option — if you can’t get to the full 10k within the bookend periods — then:

Before you work on PPP1 forgiveness, subtract whatever the 2020 unallocated ERC balance is after Step 2 (not to exceed 10k of wages per employee) from the payroll amounts during the PPP covered period — before putting numbers in the forgiveness application, just to make sure you can still get full forgiveness at this rate. This is just a “gut check” to see if you can eliminate the need to run the actual ERC calculations for the PPP covered period.

If so, then go ahead and take ERC on the difference, even if you haven’t figured out the specifics of your PPP1 forgiveness yet.

Step 4
If you can’t get full forgiveness on PPP1 at this rate, then go ahead and fill out the PPP1 application in full, using only 60% of the PPP funds to allocate payroll.

Then see how many payroll dollars are “left over” to be used for ERC.

And remember that you can use payroll from employees who made over $100k annually for ERC during the PPP period — because those dollars are not eligible for PPP (due to rules and limitations specific to that program), but they are eligible for ERC.

You can also count — for ERC purposes — dollars that were above 60% of the PPP loan, and therefore are not needed for forgiveness (presuming the business has sufficient eligible costs to make up the 40% “non-payroll” portion of PPP forgiveness).

Think of it this way: you are effectively reducing the ERC subtraction amount per-employee from PPP forgiveness until you get to full PPP forgiveness… and taking 2020 ERC on the balance (since as I mentioned before, the PPP payroll dollars are more tax-advantaged than the ERC dollars).

Does this four-step process sound easy? No! It’s not. It may not in fact be worth it for most small business clients to pay a professional to scoop up the remaining piddly amounts in the PPP covered period — in which case, consider just using Steps One and Two: the amounts in the bookend periods, or even better, just the amount from the final quarter (because that way they don’t have to pay you to manually prepare a 4Q Form 941, either).

But reviewing this approach before going in and working on all the client ERC and PPP calculations should help a great deal in identifying where the bulk of the payroll dollars are that will qualify for the ERC program, and will allow you to make intelligent decisions about which periods to mine for this type of financial relief for your small business clients.

Resources

For a wonderful in-depth explanation of the Employee Retention Tax Credit, please see Tony Nitti’s two-part Forbes article:
– Breaking Down Changes To The Employee Retention Tax Credit In The New Covid Relief Bill, Part 1
– Breaking Down The Changes To The Employee Retention Credit In The New COVID Relief Bill, Part 2
– Part 2 also links to an earlier article of his that goes through the details of calculating the ERC according to the 2020 rules.

KBKG is offering a free one-hour webinar on March 17:
– Employee Retention Tax Credits: Qualifications, Benefits & Refunds (kbkg.com)
–This is the same firm that offers the free 2021 ERC estimator calculator.

The three paid courses I’ve taken so far that were the most valuable were:
– Tom Gorczynski‘s Employee Retention Credit Update, which included an Excel Calculation Template.
– AICPA – The NEW Employee Retention Credit: More for Eligible Employers
– NATP (natptax.com) – Calculating the Earned Income Credit

If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. Ths allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.

COVID-19 Financial Relief, Education, IRS, Site News, Tips

Why You Should Still Hold Off on PPP1 Forgiveness Applications

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Many clients and colleagues have reached out to me over the past two months to ask whether they should apply for PPP1 forgiveness yet, and my answer (and that of the AICPA) is still “not quite yet”. But rather than just pushing off the question of “but when” into the future, I wanted to publicly share our company’s strategy and timeline for handling these applications.

The deadline to apply for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) forgiveness is 10 months after the end of the covered period — which for most folks for the first round was 24-weeks — so that wouldn’t be until sometime in July 2021 for the earliest borrowers. (It’s not really a deadline, but it’s the date on which the lender will start requiring loan payments, so I think of it as one.)

We’re planning to dedicate May & June 2021 to working through all our existing clients’ PPP forgiveness applications. There are many clarifications we’re still waiting for (they keep dribbling out of Congress, IRS, and the SBA bit by bit, with occasional leaps), and the interaction between the PPP and other types of financial relief is complex.

In particular, the rules surrounding the 2020 Employee Retention Credit — which until recently was not an option for PPP borrowers — are vague and complex, even with the recent IRS Notice and FAQ. Furthermore, most payroll companies have not figured out how to collect the information and prepare the 4th-quarter Form 941 forms for partial quarters, and we may end up having to file some ERC requests manually. (Don’t get me started on this one.)

An example of how the changing rules affect applications: the EIDL advance grant was previously supposed to be subtracted from PPP forgiveness; but by asking our clients to wait on their forgiveness applications, they were able to take advantage of a December 2020 change that removes this requirement, saving them many thousands of dollars. (Though thankfully, it sounds like SBA will eventually refund those amounts to businesses who applied before this new rule went into effect.)

As if these reasons weren’t enough, in a recent on-demand AICPA Town Hall, they mentioned that:
– Most lenders are not actively taking forgiveness applications because their teams are focused on administering PPP2.
– SBA is working very slowly on forgiveness process because they are also focused on PPP2.
– The new simplified form for $150k and under will not be worked into the SBA system until sometime in March.

Between the constantly-changing rules for PPP and the guidance and calculations needed for ERC, we’re still following the recommendation of the AICPA and asking folks to hold off on PPP1 forgiveness applications, until tax season is behind us all and the IRS can focus on the remaining questions, allowing us to be methodical and consistent in our approach.

There’s no reason to be nervous about holding off on forgiveness — of the one-third of PPP loans that have been submitted for forgiveness, fully 99% of the loan dollars have been forgiven. The very small amount that have not are small loans at only 1% interest. Furthermore, by waiting you are giving your business the best chance at maximizing other types of financial relief, especially as the new Biden-Harris administration is in the process of changing rules to make them more attainable for a larger number of the smallest businesses out there, as well as Congress creating new funding opportunities.

(For tips on planning for the potential Employee Retention Credit, see my next blog post.)

If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. This allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.

Cooperatives, COVID-19 Financial Relief, Education, IRS, Tips

Changes to Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Starting Feb 24

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A slide from this morning’s CPA Loan Portal-AICPA update.

Big changes yet again in the world of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), where it sometimes seems the only constant is change.

The White House released a Fact Sheet early yesterday indicating immediate changes to the program intended to shift focus to small businesses with few or no employees, and increase program access to those who may otherwise have been shut out.

The five main changes, as summarized in the CPA Loan Portal-AICPA slide above (from this morning’s webinar), are in two different areas — “Focusing On Small Businesses” and “Increasing Program Access”, and are as follows:

  1. Starting Wednesday, a temporary pause in applications for 20+ employee businesses.
  2. New eligibility calculation rules for Schedule C self-employed (see below).
  3. Borrowers with non-fraud convictions will no longer be prevented from applying.
  4. Student loan delinquency will no longer prevent borrowers from applying.
  5. Clarify that ITIN applications for non-citizens will be accepted.

The biggest take-away for our client base is #2 above — this particular section of the White House statement:

Help sole proprietors, independent contractors, and self-employed individuals receive more financial support.
These types of businesses, which include home repair contractors, beauticians, and small independent retailers, make up a significant majority of all businesses. Of these businesses, those without employees are 70 percent owned by women and people of color. Yet many are structurally excluded from the PPP or were approved for as little as $1 because of how PPP loans are calculated. To address this problem, the Biden-Harris administration will revise the loan calculation formula for these applicants so that it offers more relief, and establish a $1 billion set aside for businesses in this category without employees located in low- and moderate-income (LMI) areas.

The SBA followed up with their own release shortly afterwards, stating, “The 14-day exclusivity period will start on Wednesday, February 24, 2021 at 9 am, while the other four changes will be implemented by the first week of March. The SBA is working on the program changes and will communicate details throughout this week.”

Therefore, self-employed taxpayers should wait until the new rules are released next week to apply for PPP funds.

What does this mean for applicants and their advisors?

PPP loans are based on wages to employees, which are subject to “payroll tax” (or “Social Security & Medicare taxes”). Whereas for certain types of one-person companies that don’t have payroll, the amount is calculated based on the net profit from IRS 1040 Schedule C — the amount on which “self-employment tax” is paid (also known as “Social Security & Medicare taxes”).

As CNBC reports, because of this method of defining “payroll” for the self-employed, some applicants saw very low loan amounts in previous rounds of the program, because they make very little in profit.

To “fix” the issue, the SBA is revising the formula to match what it uses for farmers. This basically means that they will calculate loan amounts from gross income instead of net profit.

This means that millions of small business owners who posted a loss in 2019 or 2020 will still be able to apply for PPP funds, based on their revenues before deductions are taken.

This sounds wonderful — and to some extent is — but it’s inherently unfair to partnership owners, who also have their PPP loans based on self-employment income. It’s also unfair to the millions of Schedule C filers who already applied for both rounds of the PPP without the benefit of this changed rule.

In a Forbes article from yesterday afternoon, Brian Thompson pointed out, “even more important is the question of whether this formula will be retroactive for those sole proprietors who have already applied. We don’t know yet whether these businesses will be allowed to gross up based on the new formula.”

As for small business advisors, it puts us back in a sprint again, during an already-grueling tax season. This morning, we developed our plan internally for next steps, which is to identify:

1) Clients who file Schedule C;
2) Who have not filed for PPP;
3) Because they have a loss or very low income on Line 31 of their 2019 Schedule C.

Then we’ll reach out to each one of them to explain that they may in fact be eligible for PPP after all, and to offer to prepare their application through our CPA Loan Portal, as we’ve been doing since early January for all our clients who qualify.

Although I am extremely grateful for this opportunity for small business owners, the inequity of the situation is extremely upsetting; we will see if additional changes are made that allow partnerships and prior applicants to use the same rules. But even if those concessions are made, there is an inherent issue with using gross revenues rather than net — which is that other types of single-member companies (S-corps, C-corps, Non-profits and Co-operatives) did not have the same option, and I know quite a few that suffered from lack of PPP funding as a result; even harder-hit were newer companies that did not show a 25% decrease from 2019 to 2020. (It’s hard not to go up from zero.)

I could go on, but I won’t, because it’s tax season and I have to take care of client deliverables in the midst of it all. Who knew that client financial relief would be such a moving target?

If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. This allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.

COVID-19 Financial Relief, Education, Illinois, IRS, Site News, Tips

How To Apply For The Paycheck Protection Program – FREE Step-By-Step Webinar With Slides & Links

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This past Wednesday, February 17th 2021, I was honored once again to participate in State Representative Will Guzzardi’s FREE Facebook Live series designed to help his constituents — and anyone else who wants to tune in — to learn about financial relief during Covid-19.

We did an entire hour-long session on how to determine eligibility and apply for the current round of the Paycheck Protection Program, which is designed to be open through March 31, 2021 or until funds run out.

The full-length webinar is FREE, as are the slides, resources and links to walk you through the application process. Additionally, a PDF version of the slides is available for download here:

Nancy-McClelland-CPA-PPP-Event-Slides-PDFDownload

We covered the following topics:
1) Paycheck Protection Program Summary
2) Current Program Overview
3) Eligibility
4) How To Apply
5) Where To Apply
6) Forgiveness Basics
7) Resources & Questions

Please share far and wide to help small business owners learn about the current status of the Paycheck Protection Program and how they can determine eligibility and apply for a non-taxable forgivable loan to help their companies stay afloat during these challenging times.

If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. This allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.

COVID-19 Financial Relief, Education, Site News, Tips

The Dancing Accountant Presents: FREE PPP Webinar 2/17/21 6 PM Central

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I am proud to be participating in State Representative Will Guzzardi’s FREE Facebook Live series designed to help his constituents — and anyone else who wants to tune in — to learn about financial relief during Covid-19.

We’ll be doing a session on how to determine eligibility and apply for the current round of the Paycheck Protection Program, which is designed to be open through March 31, 2021 or until funds run out.

I’ll cover the following topics:
1) Paycheck Protection Program Summary
2) Current Program Overview
3) Eligibility
4) How To Apply
5) Where To Apply
6) Forgiveness Basics
7) Resources & Questions

Slides will be available through Rep. Guzzardi’s office by request, and I will link to a recording here on my blog.

As an exciting bonus, the webinar will be translated into Spanish, by the talented Elsa Prado. She was kind enough to invite me as a guest on her Spanish-language show Alas de Amor this past Saturday — and I managed to pull off about 85% of it without resorting to English, though she was kind enough to expertly translate when I did.

In either language, please join us to learn about the current status of the Paycheck Protection Program and how you can determine eligibility and apply for a non-taxable forgivable loan to help your business stay afloat during these challenging times.

If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. This allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.

COVID-19 Financial Relief, Education, Illinois, Tips

PPP & Other Emergency Funding Opportunities – FREE BACP Webinar 1/19/21

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From the Chicago Department of Business Affairs & Consumer Protection:

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program will support small businesses throughout the country with up to $284 billion toward job retention and certain other expenses. Businesses apply for PPP loans through a bank, credit union, community lender, online lender or other participating lenders. Please note that some lenders may not be participating in the program – please contact your preferred lender to determine if they are participating. Learn more at sba.gov/ppp and find a lender using the SBA Lender Match Tool.
While BACP does not manage the Paycheck Protection Program, we will be holding webinars and continuing to share information in the coming days and weeks.
The first webinar, “The Paycheck Protection Program and Other Emergency Funding Opportunities,” will be presented by the U.S. Small Business Administration and Accion Chicago on Tuesday, January 19, at 3:00 pm.Register and learn more at chicago.gov/businesseducation. More webinars will be planned in the coming weeks – stay tuned!
To learn more about the PPP, please visit these links:

If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. This allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.

COVID-19 Financial Relief, Education, Software, Tips

PPP2 Opens Today 1/11 – But Only To A Few: Be Patient.

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January 11, 2021: The next round of the popular Paycheck Protection Program technically opens today — but only for a very small number of lenders, called Community Financial Institutions. According to CPA Practice Advisor, “To promote access to capital, initially only community financial institutions will be able to make First Draw PPP Loans on Monday, January 11, and Second Draw PPP Loans on Wednesday, January 13.  The PPP will open to all participating lenders shortly thereafter.”

In the finance industry, this is being referred to as the “Soft Launch” of the PPP. The reason for this tiered approach is that these institutions (CFIs), and the disadvantaged businesses they often represent — many of them from underserved communities — were mostly shut-out of the first round of PPP back in April. Brian Thompson published a great article in Forbes yesterday, explaining the details, that I encourage you to read. In short, the SBA is trying to equalize access to business ownership and support for black and brown communities. So if you’re not in one of these groups, today’s opening is not meant for you. Please be patient.

Although only this small group of lenders will be the included in the Soft Launch, unfortunately very few of them will be prepared to take full loan applications this week. These CFIs are generally only accepting applications from their existing customers, and do not have the processing capacity to receive an influx of applications, especially from those outside the communities they serve.

My recommendation is to continue with the strategy that you have already devised — whether that’s working with your existing banking relationship, or with your CPA to apply through a lending portal (I am using the CPA Business Funding Portal, a joint program between the AICPA and biz2credit — more here — you can also use the platform for free to help prepare applications to be sent to clients’ existing lenders).

See my recent blog posts for more information about the details of this round of the Paycheck Protection Program, or how to determine whether or not you qualify.

If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. This allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.

COVID-19 Financial Relief, Education, Tips

PPP2 Guidance & Forms Are Here – Program to Open Week of January 11

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Three weeks ago today I said it was coming — and it’s here!

Today, SBA and Treasury announced the reopening of the PPP program:

Initially only community financial institutions will be able to make First Draw PPP Loans on Monday, January 11, and Second Draw PPP Loans on Wednesday, January 13.  The PPP will open to all participating lenders shortly thereafter.

Updated PPP guidance outlining Program changes to enhance its effectiveness and accessibility was released on January 6 in accordance with the Economic Aid to Hard-Hit Small Businesses, Non-Profits, and Venues Act.

Key PPP updates include (underlines are mine):

  • PPP borrowers can set their PPP loan’s covered period to be any length between 8 and 24 weeks to best meet their business needs;
  • PPP loans will cover additional expenses, including operations expenditures, property damage costs, supplier costs, and worker protection expenditures;
  • The Program’s eligibility is expanded to include 501(c)(6)s, housing cooperatives, destination marketing organizations, among other types of organizations;
  • The PPP provides greater flexibility for seasonal employees;
  • Certain existing PPP borrowers can request to modify their First Draw PPP Loan amount; and
  • Certain existing PPP borrowers are now eligible to apply for a Second Draw PPP Loan. 

A borrower is generally eligible for a Second Draw PPP Loan if the borrower:

  • Previously received a First Draw PPP Loan and will or has used the full amount only for authorized uses;
  • Has no more than 300 employees; and
  • Can demonstrate at least a 25% reduction in gross receipts between comparable quarters in 2019 and 2020. (Updated since to provide an option for annual comparison for those without quarterly records.)

The guidance included two interim final rules (IFRs).

  • The 82-page IFR “Business Loan Program Temporary Changes; Paycheck Protection Program as Amended” consolidates the rules for PPP forgivable loans for first-time borrowers and outlines changes made by the Economic Aid to Hard-Hit Small Businesses, Nonprofits, and Venues Act, P.L. 116-260.
  • The 42-page IFR “Business Loan Program Temporary Changes; Paycheck Protection Program Second Draw Loans” lays out the guidelines for new PPP loans to businesses that previously received a PPP loan.

In addition, the SBA released a three-page “Guidance on Accessing Capital for Minority, Underserved, Veteran and Women-Owned Business Concerns.” That guidance includes a commitment from the SBA to make at least the first two days of the PPP application window open exclusively to applications from community financial institutions that serve minority- and women-owned businesses.

AICPA Firm Services Vice President Lisa Simpson got up at 5 am on the morning the SBA guidance was released, and was ready by 3 pm — slide deck and all — to share it with us on the AICPA Town Hall. The hour-long episode is free and available to the public — it’s all excellent, but her presentation in the first half-hour will give you almost everything you need to know. I’ll attempt to summarize it here, but honestly… you’re doing yourself a favor to sit down and watch it.

Here’s a summary of what I consider to be the highlights:

  • New application Form 2483-SD released Friday night, January 8th!
    (You heard it here first.)
  • SBA program will open January 11, in phases, as outlined above (minority-owned businesses were the last to receive assistance first-time around).
  • March 31st is last day to apply for PPP (first- or second-round).
  • For payroll costs used in calculating the loan amount (x 2.5 months, or x 3.5 for the hospitality industry, including restaurants), one can use:
    a) 2019, b) 2020, or c) 12-months’ prior to application.
  • Borrowers that want a 2nd PPP must show a 25% quarterly revenue loss in any quarter of 2020 compared to the same quarter in 2019 (or annual, see below). The SBA is streamlining this for loans under $150k. It will not require supporting documentation to be submitted with the application but only later, when applying for forgiveness.
  • Businesses trying to show the quarterly 25% revenue drop for 2nd PPP loans can cite an annual reduction of 25% and submit copies of annual tax forms to verify. SBA and Treasury say this will help small borrowers that may not have quarterly revenue information readily available.

For details on both first-draw and second-draw maximum loan amounts and eligible costs, this Journal of Accountancy article is the best summary I have read so far.

The AICPA has been very generous in encouraging us to share its slides from the Town Halls in order to get the word out. Here are a few “best of” from Thursday’s session. Again, I encourage you to watch for yourself to get some clarity.

If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. This allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.