As of today, April 3rd, employers with less than 500 employees may start applying for loans under the Payroll Protection Program, which was created by the CARES Act passed on May 25th by Congress.
The SBA is overseeing the program, and says it will take loan applications through June 30th. The SBA does not actually make the loan to the small business, which must go through a third-party lender.
According to the SBA, the program is “designed to provide a direct incentive for small businesses to keep their workers on the payroll.” SBA says it will forgive loans “if all employees are kept on the payroll for eight weeks and the money is used for payroll, rent, mortgage interest, or utilities.
The program may help many employers with one of their biggest problems right now, how to take care of their employees when the COVID-19 pandemic has made it impossible to pay them.
For more on the PPP, see sba.gov. The application is now up on the website!