The rules that apply to you do not apply to the rank-and-file employee group. The government puts you, the owner-worker, in a separate “owner-employee” category to limit your business’s PPP benefits.

There are four types of owner-employees:

1. General partners in partnerships
2. S corporation shareholder-employees
3. C corporation shareholder-employees
4. Form 1040, Schedule C filers (e.g., the self-employed, sole proprietors, 1099 recipients, single-member LLCs, and husband and wife LLCs treated as single-member LLCs)

If you own all or part of your business and work in the business, you fall into one of the four categories.

The maximum loan attributable to and forgiveness available for the “compensation paid” to any SBA-defined owner-employee across all businesses is

• $15,385 for borrowers who received a PPP loan before June 5, 2020, and elected to use an eight-week covered period.
• $20,833 for borrowers under the 24-week covered period.

Owners of Multiple Businesses Beware

If you have ownership interests in more than one business, you need to consider that the owner-employee loan maximums apply to all your businesses.

The new interim final rule puts the $15,385 or $20,833 deemed compensation cap on the loan forgiveness for the defined owner-employee, but contains no guidance on how to allocate or otherwise deal with the caps when you have ownership interests in multiple businesses.

Example. Jim operates an S corporation and a proprietorship. He receives his PPP loan on June 17. The cap on Jim’s combined S corporation and proprietorship loan forgiveness attributable to (a) Jim’s employment in the S corporation and (b) his profits from the proprietorship is $20,833.

We know Jim can obtain loan forgiveness for up to $20,833, but we have no guidance on how Jim would allocate the forgiveness between the S corporation and proprietorship. Perhaps by the time Jim applies for PPP loan forgiveness, we will have some directions.

Partnerships

The PPP loan forgiveness begins for general partners at the amount of their 2019 net earnings from self-employment (reduced by claimed Section 179 expense deductions, unreimbursed partnership expenses, and depletion from oil and gas properties) multiplied by 0.9235.

You then take the lesser of the amount determined above or $100,000, divide by 12, and multiply by 2.5 to find the loan amount. With this calculation, the maximum loan is $20,833.

The maximum forgiveness attributable due to the partner’s self-employment income is

• $15,385 if the partnership obtained its loan before June 5, 2020, and elected the eight-week regime, or
• $20,833 if the partnership is under the 24-week program.

Planning note. Under the 24-week program, the partnership with no employees does not need to spend any amounts on interest, rent, or utilities to obtain full forgiveness. It can obtain full forgiveness in 11 weeks using the calculated self-employment income of up to $20,833 for each partner.

S Corporations

As with all owner-employees, the PPP loan and its forgiveness for “compensation” are capped at $15,835 under the eight-week covered period and $20,833 under the 24-week covered period.

Reminder. The $20,833 cap is based on the maximum defined compensation of $100,000 divided by 12 and then multiplied by 2.5.

Under the 24-week program, the S corporation whose only employee is an owner-employee obtains full loan forgiveness after 11 weeks when using the 24-week covered period without spending anything for interest, rent, or utilities.

If the S corporation with no employees other than the owner-employee elects the eight-week covered period, the corporation has to spend money on interest, rent, and utilities to rise above the $15,385.

The Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act of 2020 created a new statutory 60 percent payroll rule. Using the 60 percent enables the S corporation with no employees other than the sole owner-employee that elects the eight-week covered period to achieve full forgiveness with payments for interest, rent, and utilities.

S corporation owner-employees are capped by the amount of their 2019 employee cash compensation and employer retirement contributions made on their behalf, but employer health insurance contributions made on their behalf cannot be separately added because those payments are already included in their employee cash compensation.

Example. Liz operates her solo busines as an S corporation. Her 2019 W-2 compensation of $68,000 included $18,000 for medical insurance. Her payroll cost for the PPP loan and its forgiveness includes the full $68,000 plus what the S corporation paid into her retirement plan and to the state for unemployment insurance. The total of these amounts is capped at $100,000, which creates the $20,833 maximum loan amount as explained above.

C Corporations

C corporation owner-employees are capped by the amount of their 2019 employee cash compensation and employer retirement and health insurance contributions made on their behalf.

Example. Don operates his business as a C corporation where he is the only employee. In 2019, the corporation paid Don a salary of $60,000, contributed $12,000 to his retirement plan, paid $20,000 for his family’s medical insurance, and paid $350 to the state for unemployment insurance.

Don’s corporation has $92,350 in qualifying payroll costs. His loan and forgiveness are capped at $19,240 ($92,350 ÷ 12 x 2.5).

Form 1040 Schedule C Businesses

Your PPP loan and its forgiveness for “compensation” are capped at $15,835 under the eight-week covered period or at $20,833 under the 24-week covered period. The cap amounts are computed using your net profit from line 31 of your 2019 Schedule C.

Your easy-peasy road to 100 percent loan forgiveness is the 11-week program. With 11 weeks of taking the loan amount out of the business, you obtain full forgiveness without paying any rent, utilities, or interest.

When Can the Owner-Employee’s Business Apply for Forgiveness?

According to SBA guidance issued on June 22, 2020, you may submit your loan forgiveness application anytime on or before the maturity date of the loan—including before the end of the covered period—if you used all the loan proceeds for which you requested forgiveness.

Example. Ron receives his $20,833 PPP loan on May 19, 2020. During the 11 weeks beginning with May 19, 2020, Ron’s corporation pays qualified payroll costs that total $20,833. Ron can apply for $20,833 of loan forgiveness anytime after the 11th week.

Special allocations are tricky business. We are here to help you. Don’t hesitate to call our office:415-860-6288 (San Francisco), 917-397-0949 (New York) and 713-396-0107 (Houston) and e-mail us at info@flextcg.com.

The post PPP Loan Forgiveness for Partnerships and S and C Corporations appeared first on Flex Tax and Consulting Group (FTCG).

1. Partner’s Self-Employment Income Creates Cash and Forgiveness

Just as sole proprietors failed originally to ask for their PPP cash assistance, so did many partners.

Three things to note here:

1. The partnership (not the individual partner) applies for the PPP loan.
2. The deemed payroll amount that the partnership uses for the partners is their 2019 self-employment income (both guaranteed payments and ordinary income).
3. If the partnership filed for the PPP loan based on its employees, but failed to include any dollar amount for the partners, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) in an interim final rule authorizes the lender to increase the loan amount for the appropriate partners’ deemed payroll inclusion that was left out of the original application.

2. Paid and Capped

Line 9 of the SBA official forgiveness application reads as below:

Line 9: Enter any amounts paid to owners (owner-employees, a self-employed individual, or general partners). This amount is capped at $15,385 (the eight-week equivalent of $100,000 per year) for each individual or the eight-week equivalent of their applicable compensation in 2019, whichever is lower.

Note the word “paid.”

In general, payments to partners don’t occur in a pattern that would equal the amount needed during the eight-week covered period.

To protect the partnership’s forgiveness amount, make sure that payments to partners during the eight-week covered period equal the 8/52 of the partners’ deemed 2019 payroll. We have not seen a requirement on the “paid” part, but that word is there. So protect yourself.

3. Qualifying Non-Payroll Expenses

When explaining that the partnership had to file for the PPP loan and forgiveness, the SBA stated:

Rent, mortgage interest, utilities, and other debt service are generally incurred at the partnership level, not partner level, so it is most natural to provide the funds for these expenses to the partnership, not individual partners.

4. Apply

If your partnership has not applied for its PPP money, do it now. The SBA has plenty of money available for PPP loans at the moment, but you have to think it won’t last long.

5. Easier Forgiveness on the Way

On Thursday, May 28, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act of 2020 by a vote of 417-1. This bill or something similar will be enacted in June to make it easier for all PPP borrowers to qualify for PPP loan forgiveness.

Here are some highlights from this bill:

• Extends the eight weeks to 24 weeks
• Changes the 75 percent rule to 60 percent
• Changes the two years to five years and retains the 1 percent interest rate
• Changes June 30 to December 31
• Adds exemptions that will increase full-time equivalents and that will increase forgiveness amounts

Will make it easier to obtain forgiveness when you have reductions in your employee

If you need our assistance with either the PPP loan or forgiveness, we are here to be of service. Our office e-mail is info@flextcg.com and the office number is 415-860-6288 (San Francisco), 917-397-0949 (New York) and 713-396-0107 (Houston).

The post Six Insights into the PPP for Partnerships appeared first on Flex Tax and Consulting Group (FTCG).

If your small businesses managed to secure a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan before the well ran dry, your next task is figuring out how to use it. Here’s a list of the expenses that qualify for forgiveness (meaning you don’t have to pay the loan back).

Remember, your lender will perform an audit at the end of the 8-week forgiveness period to see how you spent the loan. Keep the relevant paperwork under each section so you can sail through the audit.

Salaries & Wages

A minimum of 75% of your PPP loan must go to compensating your employees, excluding those who earn more than $100,000 per year. We are still waiting for guidance from the Small Business Administration on salaries over $100,000 and business owner/family salaries.

For the audit: Payroll processing reports, tax reports, or other reports such as paid time off (vacation or sick leave).

Healthcare Benefits

This is for paying any company’s group health insurance plan premiums. Company owners and family are included if they’re on the group plan. However, payments to the owner’s policy or Health Savings Account contributions do not qualify for PPP loan forgiveness.

For the audit: Insurance invoice(s) and proof of payment.

Retirement Plan Contributions

If you offer your employees a Defined Benefit Plan, Defined Contribution Plan, or SEP IRA, you can use some of your PPP loans to continue funding that plan. There’s no specific guidance about benefits paid to the owner or owner’s family, but we doubt it would be forgiven.

For the audit: Retirement plan statements, funding schedules, and proof of remittances.

Non-Payroll Expenses

Operating expenses that don’t directly benefit employees — a few of which we’ll list below — can’t total more than 25% of the loan. You’ll have to pay back any excess amounts if you go over that percentage.

Rent

The expense must be incurred and paid during the 8-week loan period to be forgiven. Any rent that was already due before the date of the loan doesn’t qualify. Also, the lease must have been signed before February 15, 2020.

For the audit: Signed lease contract, proof of rent payment (canceled check, ACH, bank statement, or wire).

Utilities

Service contract agreements must have been in effect before February 15, 2020. This covers electricity, gas, water, phone, internet, etc. It’s not clear what the SBA means by “etc.”

For the audit: Proof of payment for each utility.

Interest in Business Loans

You may use some of your PPP loans to pay the interest on your business mortgage, practice acquisition loan, build-out loan, or any loan secured by business personal property. The mortgage/loan must have been in effect before February 15, 2020.

For the audit: Bank statement or loan invoice showing principal and interest, plus proof of payment. You may wish to pay principal and interest separately during the 8-week PPP loan period, so there’s no question in the auditor’s mind.

The pandemic has inflicted significant damage on many of America’s small businesses. And the financial relief red tape makes the situation even more difficult. Flex Tax can help make sense of it all and take some of the bookkeeping worries off your shoulders, so you can focus on returning to the “new normal.”

The post What Can You Spend Your PPP Forgivable Loan on? appeared first on Flex Tax and Consulting Group (FTCG).

Many small business owners who have been approved for Paycheck Protection Program loans (“PPP”) are realizing that the loan isn’t as forgivable as they’d hoped.

The amount a small business can qualify to have forgiven must primarily be payroll costs. The SBA’s rule-making has stated that at least 75% of the forgiveness request must be payroll costs but can also contain up to 25% of other approved expenses under the law such as rent, mortgage interest and utilities. That rule seems to be widely understood and so long as small business owners are spending 75% of their PPP funds on payroll this rule won’t frustrate small business owners when it comes time to forgiveness.

Unfortunately, there is an additional restriction on loan forgiveness requests which penalizes a small business if they do not bring back the same number of workers they had before the pandemic. For example, if you were a small business who had 10 employees prior to the pandemic, and now, after receiving your PPP loan funds you only have 6 employees, then your loan forgiveness request will be reduced to 60% of the total amount of eligible expenses. If the small business brought back 10 or more employees, then there is no reduction in the forgivable loan amount. In other words, small businesses who have kept or who re-hire their entire workforce are rewarded while those who can’t are punished. The fact of the matter is, that many who can’t bring back their workforce are those who have been hurt the most.

The pre-pandemic time period used to determine the number of full-time equivalent employees is either January 1, 2020 to February 29, 2020, or February 15, 2019 to June 30, 2019. The business owner can choose either time period and a smart one will choose the period when they had a lower number of full-time equivalent employees.

Using the example of a small business that received a PPP loan of $60,000 that prior to the pandemic had 10 full-time equivalent employees but has only retained or brought back 6 employees over the eight weeks following their loan funding, let’s go through both the 75% Payroll Cost Rule and the Full-time Equivalent Employee Rule to see what amounts a small business borrower would be eligible to have forgiven.

Total PPP Loan = $60,000

75% Payroll Cost Rule (applies from PPP loan funding for 8 weeks)

Amount spent on payroll costs = $30,000

Amount spent on rent = $4,000

Amount spent on utilities = $2,000

Total Amount Spent = $36,000

Payroll costs of $30,000 represent 83% of the total qualifying expenses ($36,000) to be requested and as a result, there is no need to reduce the forgiveness request based on the 75% payroll cost rule.

Side note: If non-payroll costs exceeded 25%, then the forgiveness request is reduced until no more than 25% of the amount to be forgiven is qualifying non-payroll costs. The payroll costs are always 100% eligible for forgiveness but the non-payroll costs will need to be reduced until they are no more than 25% of the total amount requested to be forgiven.

Full-time Equivalent Employee Rule

Even though the small business had a PPP loan of $60,000, they only spent $36,000 on qualifying expenses. They met the 75% payroll cost rule and the entire $36,000 is eligible for forgiveness but only after applying the full-time equivalent employee rule.

Full-time equivalent employees after PPP funding (8-week period) = 6

Full-time equivalent employees pre-pandemic = 10

Ratio of Employees Retained (amount eligible for forgiveness) = 60%

The amount eligible for forgiveness of $36,000 is then multiplied by 60% to get the final amount eligible for forgiveness of $21,600.

In the end, the small business who received a $60,000 PPP loan, spent $36,000 on payroll and other qualifying expenses (within the 75% rule), but then had their forgivable amount reduced down to $21,600 as they were only able to bring back 60% of their pre-pandemic workforce. At the end of the 8 weeks, they will be eligible for loan forgiveness of $21,600 and will need to re-pay the remaining $38,400 to the bank where they received the PPP loan. This amount is subject to 1% interest and must be repaid within two years from the date they obtained the loan.

Side note: There is an additional reduction calculation if you bring back workers but reduce their pay from the pre-pandemic time-period by more than 25%.

The reality is that small business owners are penalized harshly if they can’t bring back employees. In advising business owners in my law firm, we’ve already seen this to be a major concern and have heard of small business owners who are unable to bring back their workers as those workers’ unemployment benefits are more generous than the pay they received when working in the small business. Other business owners are struggling with shelter in place orders being extended, are still unable to open, and are reluctant to simply re-hire workers when there’s uncertainty about whether the PPP loan will just be more debt or whether it will actually function like true stimulus for the small business owner and be forgiven.

The post How to get your PPP Loans Forgivable? appeared first on Flex Tax and Consulting Group (FTCG).