SAAGNY News

The U.S. Senate passed the House version of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) legislation Wednesday night, tripling the time allotted for small businesses and other PPP loan recipients to spend the funds and still qualify for forgiveness of the loans.

The bill passed in a unanimous voice vote hours after Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson raised concerns that initially blocked the package.  Among the key provisions is a change in the threshold for the amount of PPP funds required to be spent on payroll costs to qualify for forgiveness to 60% of the loan amount. 

The Senate approval sends the House bill to the White House for signature.

The vote had to be unanimous because the Senate is not officially in session. That meant that any senator could force the matter to be delayed until the Senate returned to Washington with enough members for a quorum and a vote.  Leaders from both parties in the Senate pushed to pass the legislation on Wednesday as the clock on the initial eight-week window recently expired for the first recipients of PPP loans. Johnson dropped his objections after Senate leader Mitch McConnell agreed to add a letter to the Congressional Record clarifying that June 30 remains the deadline for applying to receive a PPP loan. The bill moves the June 30 deadline for spending the PPP funds to Dec. 31 to accommodate the new 24-week window.

Following is a summary of the legislation’s main points compiled by the American Institute for Certified Public Accountants (thank you to AICPA for this update):

·    Current PPP borrowers can choose to extend the eight-week period to 24 weeks, or they can keep the original eight-week period. New PPP borrowers will have a 24-week covered period, but the covered period can’t extend beyond Dec. 31, 2020. This flexibility is designed to make it easier for more borrowers to reach full, or almost full, forgiveness.

·    Under the language in the House bill, the payroll expenditure requirement drops to 60% from 75% but is now a cliff, meaning that borrowers must spend at least 60% on payroll or none of the loan will be forgiven. Currently, a borrower is required to reduce the amount eligible for forgiveness if less than 75% of eligible funds are used for payroll costs, but forgiveness isn’t eliminated if the 75% threshold isn’t met. Rep. Chip Roy (Texas), who co-sponsored the bill in the House, said in a House speech that the bill intended the sliding scale to remain in effect at 60%. Senators Marco Rubio and Susan Collins indicated that technical tweaks could be made to the bill to restore the sliding scale.

·    Borrowers can use the 24-week period to restore their workforce levels and wages to the pre-pandemic levels required for full forgiveness. This must be done by Dec. 31, a change from the previous deadline of June 30.

·    The legislation includes two new exceptions allowing borrowers to achieve full PPP loan forgiveness even if they don’t fully restore their workforce. Previous guidance already allowed borrowers to exclude from those calculations employees who turned down good faith offers to be rehired at the same hours and wages as before the pandemic. The new bill allows borrowers to adjust because they could not find qualified employees or were unable to restore business operations to Feb. 15, 2020, levels due to COVID-19 related operating restrictions.

·    New borrowers now have five years to repay the loan instead of two. Existing PPP loans can be extended up to 5 years if the lender and borrower agree. The interest rate remains at 1%.

·    The bill allows businesses that took a PPP loan to also delay payment of their payroll taxes, which was prohibited under the CARES Act.

The small business forgiveness guide can be found at:

https://www.uschamber.com/report/guide-ppp-loan-forgiveness 

A "Forgiveness in 15 Min" tutorial is available on YouTube at:  https://youtu.be/qUxFUvVjU0s.

For additional resources from the Association of Certified Public Accountants click here.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic Federal agencies are providing some guidance regarding Personal Protective Equipment (PPE):

FDA Enforcement Policy For Facemasks And Respirators During The Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Public Health Emergency

FDA Product Classification Database

CDC Strategies for optimizing the Supply of N95 Respirators: Crisis/Alternate Strategies

OSHA Guidance On Preparing Workplaces for COVID-19

CDC Recommendations regarding the use of cloth face coverings

CDC Guidance For DIY Cloth Face Coverings

Read All About It - June SAAGNY Life has arrived.

Click here for the issue.

Click here to read the article in Promo Marketing.

Hello Friends of The SAAGNY Foundation, 

We hope you and your families are safe and healthy.  Just want to update you on the status of our summer events.  Unfortunately, there will be no camp or school summer programming.

Since Happiness Is Camping had to cancel all sessions this summer, they are planning to give the kids a mix of activities at home - arts & crafts, outdoor challenges, Zoom sessions etc. and some live sessions each night that mirror their traditional evening activities.  Neil Kirschner put us in touch with his nephew Michael Kirschner, a professional magician, who will be doing virtual shows for various camps this summer.  We have arranged for him to do a show for these kids one evening.  This is an interactive experience that uses mentalism and magic.  We are so excited that the Foundation will be able to provide these kids with a meaningful experience during this difficult and disappointing time. 

Given the nature of the students at Hilltop School, sadly this virtual magic show would not be feasible.

We so appreciate our wonderful volunteers and look forward to seeing you next year when summer activities may resume. 

Stay safe and stay healthy.

Best,

Idelle Schwinder

Sharon Schifflehuber

Reopening status is different in every state - click here for information on New York state and click here for information on New Jersey.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic Federal agencies are providing some guidance regarding Personal Protective Equipment (PPE):

FDA Enforcement Policy For Facemasks And Respirators During The Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Public Health Emergency

FDA Product Classification Database

CDC Strategies for optimizing the Supply of N95 Respirators: Crisis/Alternate Strategies

OSHA Guidance On Preparing Workplaces for COVID-19

CDC Recommendations regarding the use of cloth face coverings

CDC Guidance For DIY Cloth Face Coverings

SAAGNY recently came across small business grant information and wanted to share these opportunities with our members and partners in case your companies might meet the eligibility requirements and are able apply. These are small business grants provided by different sources to assist small businesses that have been negatively impacted by Covid-19.

Please review the information to see if your business meets the eligibility and other requirements before you apply. SAAGNY will continue to research grants, loans and share pertinent information to help support our members and the industry in these unprecedented times.

Salesforce Small Business Grants (East)

*The application portal is open from now until May 4th 11:59p PST.

Salesforce will be offering Salesforce Care Small Business Grants of $10,000 to provide capital to help keep businesses afloat. These grants will support small businesses as they work to replenish materials, pay salaries, or adapt their business model to overcome these challenging times.

To be eligible to apply, businesses must:

– Be a for-profit business
– Have between 2 to 50 employees
– Have been in business for 2 years as of March 2020
– Have an annual revenue between $250k to $2M
– Have experienced challenges from COVID-19
– Meet all other eligibility requirements as stated in the Grant Program Terms

Click here for additional information.

Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC)

*Applications for round 2 are now closed. The next round will open on May 14th. Grants will be made in the amounts of $5,000, $7,500, and $10,000.

LISC supports small businesses and enterprises affected the Covid-19 across the country, especially those in underserved communities, including entrepreneurs of color, women- and veteran-owned businesses that often lack access to flexible, affordable capital.

Applications will be reviewed based on criteria designed to prioritize particularly challenged businesses, and the final grantees will be randomly selected from the top scoring applicants.

Sign up to stay updated about LISC’s Small Business Grant Program.

Global Giving (Red Backpack Fund)

*The portal will open for applications again on May 4, June 1, July 6, and August 3.

The Red Backpack Fund is an initiative started by The Spanx by Sara Blakely Foundation. The foundation donated $5 million to GlobalGiving who will be making at least 1,000 grants of $5,000 each to female entrepreneurs in the U.S. to help alleviate the immediate needs and support the long-term recovery of those impacted by Covid-19.

The first round of applications were open from April 6 at 12pm ET through April 12 at 11:59pm ET. Final grant recipients will be notified by the week of May 11. Each month, we will accept additional applications.

Sign up to get an email notification when the application re-opens.

PPAI is hosting a webinar on April 28 - The Need to Know Info on Personal Protective Equipment.  Click here for more information.