Last week the SBA released the PPP loan forgiveness application and worksheet that 4.23 million (as of May 14th) small businesses receiving a loan will use to try to get the loan 100% forgiven. (Oh, and that 4.23 million small businesses is only 14.1% of all the 30 million small businesses in the nation.)
This should be good news since the SBA and Dept. of Treasury have been providing loan information in dribs and drabs since it was launched on April 3rd.
Finally, small businesses with a PPP loan know what to report to turn the loan essentially into a grant. Right?
WRONG!
I am not a CPA but my co-chair of Businesses for Responsible Tax Reform Anne Zimmerman, who has 30+ years helping small business owners in complying with the IRS, said this about the application:
This forgiveness thing is painful and impossible for most small business owners to figure out. This is ridiculous.
Small businesses that struggled to get a PPP loan are going to be completely lost without professional help in filling out the loan forgiveness application.
So, let’s hope that by the time the application is to be completed, the SBA will provide more clarification and CPAs and loan officers will have figured the application out.
If you want to try to do it yourself, Forbes’ Toni Nitti has provided long, detailed, step-by-step instructions for filling out the application for forgiveness.