In this week’s Monday episode (June 15, 2020) of the Town of Plymouth’s “COVID-19 Daily Update,” Heather reported that last Friday, 40 bipartisan senators wrote a letter to the Trump administration asking the SBA and Treasury to make the debt forgiveness process simpler for small business. The original PPP loan application is only three pages long, but the debt forgiveness application is 11 pages. The senators are asking that businesses whose loans are under $250,000 receive a streamlined, one-page version of the debt forgiveness application. (The debt forgiveness application, though daunting, is actually fairly simple and straightforward, though it does have a couple of complicating factors such as FTE definitions.)

Small businesses who thought they wouldn’t be able to get a PPP loan because their businesses weren’t yet open should know that there are still over 100 billion loans available. This, along with the new flexibility in PPP guidelines, should encourage many of these businesses to apply for a PPP loan if it would be beneficial to them.

Many businesses are wondering how to offset the loan funds in QuickBooks or other accounting software. The loans are not considered income, so businesses should create a PPP loan or liability account in QuickBooks. It will technically remain in your books as a loan until it is forgiven. At the time it’s forgiven, it’s will be called a gain on extinguishment, which means it shows up as income on your books but will not be considered taxable income for tax purposes.

Heather will now be appearing on the show every Monday to give ongoing updates. Tune in next Monday at noon on the PAC-TV community channel and Plymouth government channel (Comcast 13 and 15, and Verizon 43 and 47), or online at PAC-TV’s streaming channel. You will have the opportunity to ask questions via email. The email address will be shown onscreen during the PAC-TV broadcast.