Kelly J. Bullis: PPP loan forgiveness process

Fumes of hope! That’s what we’ve all been living with for some time now. Just a whiff here and there. We “hope” that our governor doesn’t think he has to copy everything that Governor Nuisance in California does. We “hope” our legislature isn’t stupid and defunds police. We “hope” our economy can recover from the MAJOR hit it has taken from our governor shutting everything down for so long. We “hope” that our governor will finally move us into Phase 3 and really open up everything. We “hope” that doctors would get on the same page about current successful treatment options for the “VID.” We “hope” that we can actually have our PPP Loans forgiven.

Let me give you some real “hope.” Basically, the SBA has issued final regulations on the process of getting your PPP Loan forgiven.

You need to ask yourself one key question. “Is my loan more than $150,000? Or is it less than $150,000?” Depending on your answer, there is an SBA form for you. The over 150 crowd must use SBA form 3508, the under 150 crowd (which is the majority in our area) will use the SBA form 3508EZ.

Let me tell you, the difference between those two forms is night and day! If you have to fill out the full form 3508, you better be prepared to pay a CPA a considerable amount of money to help fill it out. The instructions and actual form make the worst IRS form look like a candy dance in comparison.

So let’s focus on the EZ form. You will need just a few pieces of information and you’re done. First, if your lender didn’t give you a loan number, you will need to call them for that. You will still need to show the total full-time equivalent employee total before the loan and at the time you are submitting the request for forgiveness. Hopefully they are the same, or even more full-time equivalent employees now than at the time of the PPP loan. (If less, there will be a ratio of the original PPP loan that will be considered as owed, not forgiven, but not the entire PPP loan unless the current full-time equivalent employees is zero.)

You will need to know (for the measurement period) total payroll costs (includes outside processing fees, share of employer state payroll taxes, and benefits costs), total mortgage interest paid, total business rent or lease payments, and total utility payments. Once you’ve entered all those on the form, it asks you to do a couple of simple arithmetic steps and voila! On the next page are some basic questions about making sure you followed the PPP rules, sign at the bottom and give to the bank who gave you the PPP loan. The only catch right now is the bank. They may not accept the forms yet because they haven’t finished their internal policies on this. Be patient with them. You still have plenty of time.

Did you hear? Job 6:8 says, “Oh that I might have my request, and that God would fulfill my hope.”

Kelly Bullis is a Certified Public Accountant in Carson City. Contact him at 882-4459. On the web at BullisAndCo.com Also on Facebook.