A small business owner in Chinatown, San Francisco
Source: CNBC
The time is running out for the smallest businesses to gain access to the priority application period for the Small Business Administration’s salary protection program.
But these businesses, along with small businesses of all sizes, will still be able to apply for forgiving loans outside the priority window.
The 14-day priority window announced by the Biden-Harris administration last month ends at 5:00 PM ET today, March 9th. During these two weeks, only businesses with less than 20 employees could apply for forgiving loans through PPP, a special period aimed at helping women and minority businesses gain access to funds.
More from Invest in You:
Lost job, no childcare: a year in the pandemic is not good with women
The IRS received 35 million tax returns in one week, while Americans would file them
Smallest businesses get extra PPP help. What to know before applying
Even after this window is closed, it is still possible for these businesses to apply for and get funding through the program. Although they can compete with larger businesses for cash, credit providers do not expect the program to receive any more money before the March 31 maturity date.
This year, through March 7, the SBA approved more than 2.4 million PPP loans for a total of $ 165 billion. That’s about 58% of the $ 284 billion allocated to the program when it reopened in January.
“We could exceed $ 200 billion, but I think there’s probably another $ 50 to $ 75 billion left,” said Customers Bank chief operating officer Sam Sidhu, headquartered in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania.
The smallest businesses can still apply
This is important for the smallest businesses that wanted to utilize the priority application window but delayed the submission of paperwork.
While the special application period opened on February 24, the election for those who were struggling with student loan debt, had convictions without fraud or were non-civilian business owners did not take effect until the first week of March, while the special application period has been opened. causes confusion for some. An updated formula for calculating loans that mean more money for businesses with an IRS Form 1040 Schedule C was only announced by the SBA on March 3rd.
In addition, the administration was only ready to process forms with the new calculation formula on 5 March, which gave one-man businesses little time to gain access to the priority application period.
But these businesses can still apply before the deadline, Sidhu says, and should not think they will not get a loan because they missed the priority window.
Be aware of the deadline
Many aliens have a major concern due to the expiration date on March 31 of the entire program.
“The looming deadline of March 31 is a much bigger problem,” said Chris Hurn, CEO of Fountainhead Commercial Capital, a non-bank lender. He added that he was concerned that the date was not enough time for all small businesses to take advantage of the new rules or to apply for additional rounds of funding, which could be crucial for their survival.
In addition, borrowers are also under pressure to process everyone’s loans as quickly as possible, which has been difficult with changing rules.
“Everyone’s bandwidth has been stretched tremendously over the last year with this program,” Hurn said.
So far, Biden’s government has not indicated that the program will be expanded, a move that must be approved by Congress.
SIGN UP: Money 101 is an 8-week financial freedom course delivered weekly to your inbox.
SIGN OUT: Single mom earns $ 10,000 a month at Outschool: ‘I could never make as much money as a regular teacher’ via Growth with acorns + CNBC.
Disclosure: NBCUniversal and Comcast Ventures are investors in Acorns.