We Can Help Your Business Receive COVID-19 Relief
We have agents standing by right now who can help you receive the COVID-19 relief your business needs.
Employee Retention Credit
The ERC is a tax credit that was included in last year’s Coronavirus, Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act as a way to help small businesses survive the economic downtown and keep their workers employed. With the ERC, businesses can either get reductions in federal employment tax deposits, or request tax-credit advances for amounts that aren’t taken care of by the deposit reductions.
If you’re not familiar with the employee retention credit, you’re not alone. The ERC has received much less attention than other COVID relief programs, such as the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan, because the ERC initially included restrictions that disqualified many small businesses.
Fortunately, many federal stimulus programs have greatly expanded the number of businesses that can claim the credit, while also increasing the amount of money that can be claimed. Among the most important changes was that PPP loan recipients can now also apply for the ERC.
Food & Beverage Grant
The American Rescue Plan Act established the Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF) to provide funding to help restaurants and other eligible businesses keep their doors open. This program will provide restaurants with funding equal to their pandemic-related revenue loss up to $10 million per business and no more than $5 million per physical location. Recipients are not required to repay the funding as long as funds are used for eligible uses no later than March 11, 2023.
Eligible entities who have experienced pandemic-related revenue loss include:
- Restaurants
- Food stands, food trucks, food carts
- Caterers
- Bars, saloons, lounges, taverns
- Snack and nonalcoholic beverage bars
- Bakeries (onsite sales to the public comprise at least 33% of gross receipts)
- Brewpubs, tasting rooms, taprooms (onsite sales to the public comprise at least 33% of gross receipts)
- Breweries and/or microbreweries (onsite sales to the public comprise at least 33% of gross receipts)
- Wineries and distilleries (onsite sales to the public comprise at least 33% of gross receipts)
- Inns (onsite sales of food and beverage to the public comprise at least 33% of gross receipts)
- Licensed facilities or premises of a beverage alcohol producer where the public may taste, sample, or purchase products
Live Venues Grant
The Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) program was established by the Economic Aid to Hard-Hit Small Businesses, Nonprofits, and Venues Act, and amended by the American Rescue Plan Act. The program includes over $16 billion in grants to shuttered venues, to be administered by SBA’s Office of Disaster Assistance.
Eligible applicants may qualify for grants equal to 45% of their gross earned revenue, with the maximum amount available for a single grant award of $10 million. $2 billion is reserved for eligible applications with up to 50 full-time employees.
Eligible entities include:
- Live venue operators or promoters
- Theatrical producers
- Live performing arts organization operators
- Museum operators
- Motion picture theater operators (including owners)
- Talent representatives
Other requirements of note:
- Must have been in operation as of February 29, 2020
- Venue or promoter who received a PPP loan on or after December 27, 2020, will have the SVOG reduced by the PPP loan amount
Long Term Government Loans
The SBA is providing government loans that provide economic relief to small businesses and nonprofit organizations that are currently experiencing a temporary loss of revenue. The loans can help you meet financial obligations and operating expenses that could have been met had the disaster not occurred.
- Up to $500,000
- 3.75% fixed interest for businesses
- 2.75% fixed interest for non-profits
- 30-year maturity
- Can be used for working capital and operating expenses.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! If you work for yourself, or as an independent contractor – you are eligible! This includes anyone who is self-employed, a 1099 independent contractor, or sole proprietor.
Basically any money you made. That includes any wages, commissions, income, cash tips, or other earnings you receive. This is capped at $100,000 per year.
If you qualify, you can receive 2.5 months of your normal payroll / earnings! That means if you normally earn $60,000 per year (or did in 2019 before things dropped way down in 2020), you could get $12,500. If your business is in the hospitality or food industry, that number goes up to 3.5x.
That’s pretty simple. What your entire loan amount is based on getting 2.5x your monthly earnings (or 3.5x if you’re going for 2nd draw and are in the food or hospitality industry). To find this:
- Find your IRS 1040 Schedule C Tax Return from 2019 (the normal one you get)
- Find the amount on Line 31. (if that’s over $100,000, reduce it to $100,000)
- Divide that number by 12 (to find your average monthly earnings)
- Multiply that monthly average by 2.5
- That’s it!
For example, if your Line 31 says you earned $60,000 in 2019, you could apply for a loan of $12,500 ($60,000 / 12 = $5,000. Then $5,000 x 2.5).
That’s alright! We can help you fill out what’s called a Draft Schedule C, which provides an estimate of earnings for that year.
You can apply to have your loan 100% forgiven if you meet certain criteria (which are pretty easy to meet). You have to:
- Spend that money within 24 weeks (6 months)
- Employee and compensation levels are maintained (which if you’re self-employed is just you)
- At least 60 percent of the proceeds are spent on payroll costs, and the rest goes to other eligible expenses (wages / payroll, mortgage interest, rent, utilities, taxes, benefits, etc).
Then we’ll help you fill out the required paperwork to get it 100% forgiven!
After receiving hundreds of billions in new funding December 2020, the PPP program was extended to March 31, 2021, or as long as funds last.
- Spend that money within 24 weeks (6 months)
- Employee and compensation levels are maintained (which if you’re self-employed is just you)
- At least 60 percent of the proceeds are spent on payroll costs, and the rest goes to other eligible expenses (wages / payroll, mortgage interest, rent, utilities, taxes, benefits, etc).
Then we’ll help you fill out the required paperwork to get it 100% forgiven!
Yes! If you had any kind of self-employed income in 2019 or 2020 (as long as you began receiving that before Feb 15, 2020), you can still receive PPP funds.
That includes any 1099, self-employed or sole-proprietor income.
You receiving any other form of income (eg from investments, an employer payroll, etc) does not disqualify you from applying for PPP, as long as you have separate self-employment income.
No. No personal guarantee or collateral is required!
No credit checks are performed, so there is no credit numbers required.
Yes you can! The second draw was setup to help the more harder-hit businesses. You can qualify if you have:
- No more than 300 employees
- Have used or will use the full amount of the first PPP
- Can demonstrate you have to have at least 1 quarter (3 month period) in 2020 with a 25% drop in revenue compared with the same period in 2019.
The PPP program was designed to be used for:
- Payroll / salary costs
- Employee Benefits (health insurance, retirement, etc)
- Interest on mortgages, (if incurred before February 15, 2020)
- Rent (if lease was signed before February 15, 2020)
- Utilities (that were in service before February 15, 2020)
- Operations costs such as software, cloud computing, and other human resources and accounting items
- Covered property damage costs related to property damage due to public disturbances that occurred during 2020 that are not covered by insurance; and
- Supplier costs with the same period in 2019.
Payroll cost include:
- Salary, wages, commissions, or tips (with a maximum of $100,000/yr for each employee);
- Employee benefits – costs for vacation, parental, family, medical, or sick leave, health care insurance premiums, and retirement benefits
- State and local taxes for employee compensation
- Covered worker protection expenditure such as personal protective equipment and adaptive investments to help a loan recipient comply with federal and/or state health and safety guidelines; and
- For the self-employed (sole proprietor or independent contractor): any wages, commissions, income, or earnings you make (capped at $100,000 per year).
The interest rate is 1%. But that doesn’t matter if you get it all forgiven.
The loan term is 5 years, but you can get it 100% forgiven if you apply within the first 8-24 weeks (2-6 months)
Yes! There are no prepayment penalties or fees. But just know if you qualify for 100% forgiveness, you don’t need to worry about that at all.
It’s a pretty simple process. As long as you meet the following criteria, you can have your PPP loan 100% forgiven. You have to:
- Spend that money within 24 weeks (6 months)
- Employee and compensation levels are maintained (which if you’re self-employed is just you)
- At least 60 percent of the proceeds are spent on payroll costs, and the rest goes to other eligible expenses (wages / payroll, mortgage interest, rent, utilities, taxes, benefits, etc).
Then we’ll help you fill out the paperwork needed. You’ll need to provide some documentation that proves you actually spent it accordingly (like a bank statement), and you can have it 100% forgiven.
You can have your loan 100% forgiven when you apply within 8 to 24 weeks of receiving it (2 to 6 months).
To have your loan 100% forgiven, you’ll need to have:
- Spend that money within 24 weeks (6 months)
- Employee and compensation levels are maintained (which if you’re self-employed is just you)
- At least 60 percent of the proceeds are spent on payroll costs, and the rest goes to other eligible expenses (wages / payroll, mortgage interest, rent, utilities, taxes, benefits, etc).
Then we’ll help you fill out the paperwork needed. You’ll need to provide some documentation that proves you actually spent it accordingly (like a bank statement), and you can have it 100% forgiven.
Payroll costs will be capped at $100,000 per year for each employee.
Having your loan forgiven is based on you maintaining or quickly rehiring employees and maintaining payroll levels. The amount you get forgiven will be reduced if full-time headcount declines, or if salaries and wages decrease.
If you are applying for the 1st round of PPP loans, then you can have no more than 500 employees.
If you’re applying for the 2nd round of PPP, you can have no more than 300 employees.