The program provides cash-flow assistance through 100 percent federally guaranteed loans to employers who maintain their payroll during this emergency. If employers maintain their payroll, the loans would be forgiven, which would help workers remain employed, as well as help affected small businesses and our economy snap-back quicker after the crisis.

PPP has a host of attractive features, such as forgiveness of up to 8 weeks of payroll based on employee retention and salary levels, no SBA fees, and at least six months of deferral with maximum deferrals of up to a year. Small businesses and other eligible entities will be able to apply if they were harmed by COVID-19 between February 15, 2020 and June 30, 2020. This program is retroactive to February 15, 2020, in order to help bring workers who may have already been laid off back onto payrolls. Loans are available through June 30, 2020.

• Businesses and entities must have been in operation on February 15, 2020.
• Small business concerns, as well as any business concern, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, a 501(c)(19) veterans organization, or Tribal business concern described in section 31(b)(2)(C) that has fewer than 500 employees, or the applicable size standard in number of employees for the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) industry as provided by SBA, if higher.
• Individuals who operate a sole proprietorship or as an independent contractor and eligible self-employed individuals.
• Any business concern that employs not more than 500 employees per physical location of the business concern and that is assigned a NAICS code beginning with 72, for which the affiliation rules are waived.
• Affiliation rules are also waived for any business concern operating as a franchise that is assigned a franchise identifier code by the Administration, and company that receives funding through a Small Business Investment Company.

Affiliation rules become important when SBA is deciding whether a business’s affiliations preclude them from being considered “small.” Generally, affiliation exists when one business controls or has the power to control another or when a third party (or parties) controls or has the power to control both businesses. Please see this resource for more on these rules and how they can impact your business’s eligibility.

Depending on your business’s situation, the loan size will be calculated in different ways (see below). The maximum loan size is always $10 million.

• If you were in business February 15, 2019 – June 30, 2019: Your max loan is equal to 250 percent of your average monthly payroll costs during that time period. If your business employs seasonal workers, you can opt to choose March 1, 2019 as your time period start date.
• If you were not in business between February 15, 2019 – June 30, 2019: Your max loan is equal to 250 percent of your average monthly payroll costs between January 1, 2020 and February 29, 2020.
• If you took out an Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) between February 15, 2020 and June 30, 2020 and you want to refinance that loan into a PPP loan, you would add the outstanding loan amount to the payroll sum.

• Compensation (salary, wage, commission, or similar compensation, payment of cash tip or equivalent)
• Payment for vacation, parental, family, medical, or sick leave
• Allowance for dismissal or separation
• Payment required for the provisions of group health care benefits, including insurance premiums
• Payment of any retirement benefit
• Payment of State or local tax assessed on the compensation of employees

• Employee/owner compensation over $100,000
• Taxes imposed or withheld under chapters 21, 22, and 24 of the IRS code
• Compensation of employees whose principal place of residence is outside of the U.S.
• Qualified sick and family leave for which a credit is allowed under sections 7001 and 7003 of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act

• Payroll costs (as noted above)
• Costs related to the continuation of group health care benefits during periods of paid sick, medical, or family leave, and insurance premiums
• Employee salaries, commissions, or similar compensations (see exclusions above)
• Payments of interest on any mortgage obligation (which shall not include any prepayment of or payment of principal on a mortgage obligation)
• Rent (including rent under a lease agreement)
• Utilities
• Interest on any other debt obligations that were incurred before the covered period

For any amounts not forgiven, the maximum term is 10 years, the maximum interest rate is 4 percent, zero loan fees, zero prepayment fee (SBA will establish application fees caps for lenders that charge).

Forgiveness on a covered loan is equal to the sum of the following payroll costs incurred during the covered 8 week period compared to the previous year or time period, proportionate to maintaining employees and wages (excluding compensation over $100,000):

• Payroll costs plus any payment of interest on any covered mortgage obligation (not including any prepayment or payment of principal on a covered mortgage obligation) plus any payment on any covered rent obligation plus and any covered utility payment.

You must apply through your lender for forgiveness on your loan. In this application, you must include:

• Documentation verifying the number of employees on payroll and pay rates, including IRS payroll tax filings and State income, payroll and unemployment insurance filings.
• Documentation verifying payments on covered mortgage obligations, lease obligations, and utilities.
• Certification from a representative of your business or organization that is authorized to certify that the documentation provided is true and that the amount that is being forgiven was used in accordance with the program’s guidelines for use.

Any loan amounts not forgiven are carried forward as an ongoing loan with max terms of 10 years, at a maximum interest rate of 4%. Principal and interest will continue to be deferred, for a total of 6 months to a year after disbursement of the loan. The clock does not start again.

Borrowers may apply for PPP loans and other SBA financial assistance, including Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDLs), 7(a) loans, 504 loans, and microloans, and also receive investment capital from Small Business Investment Corporations (SBICs). However, you cannot use your PPP loan for the same purpose as your other SBA loan(s). For example, if you use your PPP to cover payroll for the 8-week covered period, you cannot use a different SBA loan product for payroll for those same costs in that period, although you could use it for payroll not during that period or for different workers.

Emergency Economic Injury Grant and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) recipients and those who receive loan payment relief through the Small Business Debt Relief Program may apply for and take out a PPP loan as long as there is no duplication in the uses of funds.

You can get one PPP loan per business entity, so if you have multiple entities, you can apply for multiple PPP loans. Each loan will be registered under a Taxpayer Identification Number at SBA to prevent multiple loans to the same entity. If you have multiple locations/units within a single entity, it would be a single loan to that entity. Since ApplePie works with so many multi-unit franchisees, our platform is optimized for borrowers with multiple entities, which will save time in the application process.

No, but be sure to check your existing loan documents on prohibitions against additional borrowing.

Full details on application requirements are yet to be defined by the SBA, but we have created a pre-application process that we encourage you to get started with now, and we will update the application as new information is available.

Approvals will come from the lender once your application has been reviewed. Time to funding will depend in large part on how the government and SBA structures the program. This is an unprecedented situation, resulting in millions of small businesses in need applying for relief all at once. ApplePie is trying to help all of our customers get a head start by starting an application now.

No, ApplePie does not charge borrowers any fees.

If you have taken advantage of the Core Relief Program (only for ApplePie Core loan borrowers) and entered into a modification agreement, the answer is yes.

If you have not taken advantage of the Core Relief Program, the answer depends on the additional indebtedness covenants of your loan agreement and the amount of the SBA CARES loan. Email us at [email protected] if you need help in determining your options.