Please note that this blog is based on laws effective on April 17, 2020 and may not contain later amendments. Please contact Cray Kaiser for most recent information.
Congratulations on receiving your Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds! You and your bank have worked hard to ensure that you have the funds available to maintain payroll and operations for the next eight weeks. But the hard work is far from over. And you’re likely asking, “What do I do now to qualify for loan forgiveness?”
Just as you prepared your application for the PPP, it’s time to get your internal process ready for tracking the use of the funds to ensure your path to loan forgiveness.
Best practices to consider for “Getting your PPP house in order”:
- The eight-week period (covered period) begins upon your receipt of the funds. Note that how you use these funds within the covered period will be a major component of the forgiveness computation.
- Request
your bank to set up a new account where the funds will be deposited. This
way, the PPP funds are not comingled with other operating cash flow. Thus,
tracking the use of the funds will be easier.
- When using the funds, transfer the exact amounts out of the PPP account to your payroll or operating account to “pay for” those covered payroll costs or other qualified expenses including mortgage interest payments, rent payments and utilities costs.
- Keep the supporting documents for all of your transfers out of this account in a separate file in your accounting records, be it a new file on your computer or a separate database file on your server. For example, at a minimum, keep payroll reports, health insurance bills, paid utility bills, rent and retirement contributions paid during the covered period.
The rules we know today:
- There will be another application process for the loan forgiveness in which the following will need to be provided:
- Payroll tax filings reported to the Internal Revenue Service
- State income, payroll, and unemployment insurance filings
- Financial statements verifying payment on debt obligations incurred before the covered period
- Any other documentation the SBA determines necessary (let’s be ready!)
- 75% of PPP funds are required to be used for “payroll costs”.
- The remaining 25% of the funds can be used to cover qualifying, non-payroll expenses including mortgage interest payments, rent payments and utilities costs.
The process to forgive:
- As of this writing on April 17, 2020, the loan forgiveness process has yet to be defined. However, we do know that the forgiveness application will be filed with the lender that originated the loan documentation.
- We also know that no later than 15 days after the date which a lender receives a forgiveness application, the lender will render the decision.
- Finally, we know that there is no taxability on the cancellation of this indebtedness. The cancellation will be excluded from gross income for purposes of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. What we don’t know is if the IRS will modify how we are able to deduct the costs for which this PPP money funded. Or, if states will follow the IRS’ lead. There’s likely more to come on these definitions and we will keep you informed as we learn more.
In the meantime, you can read more details in the Congressional documents by clicking here.
If you need assistance getting your PPP funds organized or getting your current financial statements for 2020 reconciled, we are here for you. Creating a system for tracking the use of PPP funds will likely expedite the loan forgiveness process when it becomes available. You can learn more about our specific COVID-19 Support Services here or you can call CK today at 630-953-4900.
CK OFFICE OPERATIONS
These are certainly trying times and we want to reiterate that Cray Kaiser is here for you. As things continue to evolve in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, we at CK are taking additional precautions for the benefit of our team members and our clients.
Effective immediately:
- No clients or guests will be allowed in our suite.
- All in-person meetings are cancelled. Instead, we will be utilizing phone calls and/or email to communicate with our clients.
- Our team members are being encouraged to work remotely. All staff are equipped with the appropriate technology and resources to continue to securely and confidentially serve you from home.
- We will no longer have in-person drop offs of accounting/tax data. Instead, please drop off any packages outside the office door of our suite in the box provided.
- All paper files, tax returns etc. will no longer be mailed by our office to you. We will be holding these items in our office to send to you at a later date.
CK PORTAL ACCESS
We want to remind our clients of our portal access and your ability to safely and securely share your information with our team. We ask that you email efile@craykaiser.com to request your portal access. This will eliminate the need for you to drop off your tax information at our office.
MOVING FORWARD
Thank you for your patience and understanding during this challenging time. We wish you, your family, and your business health and safety. We will continue to support you as best as we can while keeping each other’s health a priority. If any changes occur during the course of the next few days, we will update our website.