InfoBytes Blog
SBA, Treasury extend PPP certification safe harbor
During the week ending May 8, the Small Business Administration (SBA) in consultation with the Treasury Department (Treasury) updated the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) to, among other things, provide guidance on the PPP safe harbor and counting a small business’s employees for the 500 or fewer employee requirement. As previously covered by InfoBytes, the SBA will deem that the borrower certification on a loan application was made in good faith if a recipient of a PPP loan prior to April 24 determines it may have other forms of liquidity and repays the loan by the safe harbor deadline of May 7. SBA extended the safe harbor for repayment from May 7 to May 14. The FAQs also provide that a small business must include foreign affiliate employees when calculating how many people it employs for purposes of determining if the business meets the PPP eligibility requirement of 500 or fewer employees. Additionally, the updated FAQs also explain that a PPP loan recipient that makes a good faith attempt, in writing, to rehire a furloughed employee, will not be penalized by a reduction in loan forgiveness it receives if that employee rejects the offer. New FAQs also cover how to calculate maximum PPP loan amounts for seasonal employers and whether nonprofit hospitals qualify for PPP loans.