On Thursday, October 8, the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Treasury Department announced the release of a new, further simplified forgiveness application for PPP borrowers with loans of $50,000 or less. The new application - Form 3508S - is one-and-half pages long, and requires the borrower to certify that the amount they are seeking forgiveness for was spent in accordance with the PPP requirements. Documentation must be submitted to their lender confirming payroll costs, employee numbers, business mortgage interest payments, rent and utility costs for the covered period. The new forgiveness application is simpler for eligible borrowers to use, and will reduce the processing time on the part of the lenders.
In addition, borrowers who use the Form 3508S are exempt from the PPP requirements for maintaining the number of "Full Time Equivalent" employees and not reducing employee wages. Thus, borrowers with loans of $50,000 or less who use the new form are eligible to have their full PPP loan amount forgiven even if economic circumstances kept them from meeting one or both of those requirements of the program.
NAR has been supportive of further streamlined forgiveness rules for small PPP borrowers, and will continue to advocate for future improvements to the program. The SBA is currently processing forgiveness applications provided by the SBA lenders. Borrowers have 10 months from the end of their covered period to submit the Loan Forgiveness Application and accompanying documents to their lender, and the lender then has 60 days to make a determination on the loan forgiveness request.