Last week (Wednesday, February 25, 2021), the White House established a 14-day, exclusive PPP loan application period for businesses and nonprofits with fewer than 20 employees.

“This will give lenders and community partners more time to work with the smallest businesses to submit their applications, while also ensuring that larger PPP-eligible businesses will still have plenty of time to apply for and receive support before the program expires on March 31st,” said the President.

The SBA also announced four additional changes to open the PPP to more underserved small businesses.

According to the White House, the enhanced PPP will…

• Allow sole proprietors, independent contractors, and self-employed individuals to receive more financial support by revising the PPP’s funding formula for these categories of applicants

• Eliminate an exclusionary restriction on PPP access for small business
owners with prior non-fraud felony convictions, consistent with a
bipartisan congressional proposal

• Eliminate PPP access restrictions on small business owners who have
struggled to make student loan payments by eliminating student loan debt
delinquency being a disqualifier to participating in the PPP

• Ensure access for non-citizen small business owners who are lawful U.S. residents by clarifying that they may use Individual Taxpayer Identification
Number (ITIN) to apply for the PPP.

According to the President, 400,000 small businesses have closed during the pandemic, and “millions more are hanging by a thread.”

Biden noted that 98% of small businesses fit into this category. By temporarily limiting the approval process to them, the goal is to get more money to ventures that have a harder time accessing capital than their larger counterparts do. 

Links to information prepared by the SBA


GettyImages

Related Articles

Table Of Contents

SmallBusiness.com Guide to Coronavirus Pandemic