You will need to apply for forgiveness with the lender that issued your loan. In this case, Funding Circle. You will receive a personalized email that will walk you through the Paycheck Protection Program Forgiveness process when your personalized forgiveness application is available to be completed.

You can apply for loan forgiveness after the end of your “covered period.” Your covered period is the time (described in more detail in the next question and answer) during which the money you spend on eligible expenses may be forgiven—any amount remaining after the end of your covered period won’t be forgivable.

You may elect a covered period ending at the point of your choosing between 8 and 24 weeks after origination until May 31, 2021.

Yes. The amount of loan forgiveness can be up to the full principal amount of the loan and any accrued interest. An eligible borrower will not be responsible for any loan payment if the borrower uses all of the loan proceeds for forgivable purposes and employee and compensation levels are maintained or, if not, an applicable safe harbor or exemption applies. The actual amount of loan forgiveness will depend, in part, on the total amount of payroll costs (including employer contributions for group health, life, disability, vision and dental insurance), payments of interest on mortgage obligations incurred before February 15, 2020, rent payments on leases dated before February 15, 2020, utility payments for service that began before February 15, 2020, covered operations expenditures, covered property damage costs, covered supplier costs, and covered worker protection expenditures over the loan forgiveness covered period. Payroll costs that are qualified wages taken into account in determining the Employe Retention Credit are not eligible for loan forgiveness.

The “loan forgiveness covered period” is the period beginning on the date the lender disburses the PPP loan and ending on any date selected by the borrower that occurs during the period (i) beginning on the date that is 8 weeks after the date of disbursement and (ii) ending on the date that is 24 weeks after the date of disbursement.

To receive full loan forgiveness, a borrower must use at least 60 percent of the PPP loan for payroll costs, and not more than 40 percent of the loan forgiveness amount may be attributable to non payroll costs. For example, if a borrower uses 59 percent of its PPP loan for payroll costs, it will not receive the full amount of loan forgiveness it might otherwise be eligible to receive. Instead, the borrower will receive partial loan forgiveness, based on the requirement that 60 percent of the forgiveness amount must be attributable to payroll costs. For example, if a borrower receives a $100,000 PPP loan, and during the covered period the borrower spends $54,000 (or 54 percent) of its loan on payroll costs, then because the borrower used less than 60 percent of its loan on payroll costs, the maximum amount of loan forgiveness the borrower may receive is $90,000 (with $54,000 in payroll costs constituting 60 percent of the forgiveness amount and $36,000 in non payroll costs constituting 40 percent of the forgiveness amount). Because the Economic Aid Act changed the loan forgiveness covered period from either an 8- or 24-week period to a covered period between 8 and 24 weeks at the election of the borrower, SBA is eliminating the “alternative covered period” as defined in the interim final rule published at 85 Fed. Reg. 33004, 33006 (June 1, 2020), as amended.

Additionally, an eligible borrower that received a loan of $150,000 or less shall not, at the time of its application for loan forgiveness, be required to submit any application or documentation in addition to the certification and information required by paragraph 7A(l)(1)(A) of the Small Business Act. Such borrowers must retain records relevant to the form that prove compliance with the PPP requirements —with respect to employment records, for the 4-year period following submission of the loan forgiveness application, and with respect to other records, for the 3-year period following submission of the loan forgiveness application. All other borrowers must follow the existing requirements for loan forgiveness applications and records retention. SBA may review and audit PPP loans of $150,000 or less and access any records the borrower is required to retain. All borrowers with loans of any size must provide documentation independently to a lender to satisfy relevant Federal, State, local or other statutory or regulatory requirements or in connection with an SBA loan review.

The Economic Aid Act repealed the CARES Act provision requiring SBA to deduct EIDL Advance Amounts received by borrowers from the forgiveness payment amounts remitted by SBA to the lender. The EIDL Advance Amount received by the borrower will not reduce the amount of forgiveness to which the borrower is entitled and will not be deducted from the forgiveness payment amount that SBA remits to the lender. Any EIDL Advance Amounts previously deducted from a borrower’s forgiveness amount will be remitted to the lender, together with interest to the remittance date.

PPP funds used for the following expenses, that are either paid or incurred during your covered period may be forgivable:

• Payroll costs (defined below)
• Interest payments on mortgage obligations that were in effect before February 15, 2020.
• Rent payments for real and personal property on leases dated before February 15, 2020. These may include rents for buildings, vehicles, and equipment.
• Utility payments, including electricity, gas, water, transportation, telephone and internet service, from services agreements dated before February 15, 2020.
• Covered operations expenditures: Payment for any software, cloud computing, and other human resources and accounting needs.
• Covered property damage costs: Costs related to property damage due to public disturbances that occurred during 2020 that are not covered by insurance.
• Covered supplier costs: Expenditures to a supplier pursuant to a contract, purchase order, or order for goods in effect prior to taking out the loan that are essential to the recipient’s operations at the time at which the expenditure was made. Supplier costs of perishable goods can be made before or during the life of the loan.
• Covered worker protection expenditure: Personal protective equipment and adaptive investments to help a loan recipient comply with federal health and safety guidelines or any equivalent State and local guidance related to COVID-19

Payroll costs consist of compensation to employees whose principal place of residence is in the United States and includes the following:

• Compensation to employees (whose principal place of residence is the United States) in the form of salary, wages, commissions, or similar compensation; cash tips or the equivalent (based on employer records of past tips or, in the absence of such records, a reasonable, good-faith employer estimate of such tips);
• Payment for vacation, parental, family, medical, or sick leave;
• Allowance for separation or dismissal;
• Payment for the provision of employee benefits consisting of group health care or group life, disability, vision, or dental insurance, including insurance premiums, and retirement;
• Payment of state and local taxes assessed on compensation of employees;
• For an independent contractor or sole proprietor: wages, commissions, income, or net earnings from self-employment, or similar compensation.

• Any compensation of an employee whose principal place of residence is outside of the United States;
• The compensation of an individual employee in excess of $100,000 on an annualized basis, as prorated for the period during which the payments are made or the obligation to make the payments is incurred;
• Federal employment taxes imposed or withheld during the applicable period, including the employee’s and employer’s share of FICA (Federal Insurance Contributions Act) and Railroad Retirement Act taxes, and income taxes required to be withheld from employees; and
• Qualified sick and family leave wages for which a credit is allowed under sections 7001 and 7003 of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (Public Law 116–127).

If your EIDL loan was used for payroll costs, your PPP loan must be used to refinance your EIDL loan.

A complete list of required documents is included in the Forgiveness Application. For example, you may need to provide:

For PPP loans less than $150,000:

Submit a one page certification form to Funding Circle that includes a description of the number of employees the borrower was able to retain because of the covered loan, the estimated total amount of the loan spent on payroll costs, and the total loan amount. The borrower must also attest that the borrower accurately provided the required certification and complied with Paycheck Protection Program loan requirements.

For PPP loans more than $150,000:

Recipient required to submit documentation to the lender:

• (1) documentation verifying the number of full-time equivalent employees on payroll and pay rates for the periods including–
  • (A) payroll tax filings reported to the Internal Revenue Service; and (B) State income, payroll, and unemployment insurance filings;
• (2) documentation, including cancelled checks, payment receipts, transcripts of accounts, or other documents verifying payments on covered mortgage obligations, payments on covered lease obligations, and covered utility payments;
• (3) a certification from a representative of the eligible recipient authorized to make such certifications that–
  • (A) the documentation presented is true and correct; and
  • (B) the amount for which forgiveness is requested was used to retain employees, make interest payments on a covered mortgage obligation, make payments on a covered rent obligation, or make covered utility payments

For second PPP loans, you will need to provide documentation demonstrating gross receipts during the first, second, third, or, only with respect to an application submitted on or after January 1, 2021, fourth quarter in 2020 that demonstrate not less than a 25 percent reduction from the gross receipts of the entity during the same quarter in 2019.

• If the entity was not in business during the first, second, or third quarter of 2019, but was in business during the fourth quarter of 2019, had gross receipts during the first, second, third, or, only with respect to an application submitted on or after January 1, 2021, fourth quarter of 2020 that demonstrate not less than a 25 percent reduction from the gross receipts of the entity during the fourth quarter of 2019;
• If the entity was not in business during 2019, but was in operation on February 15, 2020, had gross receipts during the second, third, or, only with respect to an application submitted on or after January 1, 2021, fourth quarter of 2020 that demonstrate not less than a 25 percent reduction from the gross receipts of the entity during the first quarter of 2020.

Please be aware that this list is subject to change

First, we will confirm the amount of your loan. Then we will confirm the amount that is eligible for forgiveness within 60 days after receiving a fully completed forgiveness application and all related supporting documentation. The SBA then has 90 days to review your loan and application and send the money. But the approval process may be delayed if SBA decides to review your file and notifies us not to process your forgiveness application until their review is complete.

You’ll need to repay any amount that isn’t forgiven, but there’s no prepayment penalty, and the loan has a low, 1% fixed interest rate. Your loan will have either a two- or five-year repayment term if the SBA approved your loan depending on the day on which your loan was made. Please refer to your loan documents for your loan terms. All PPP loans made on or after June 5th, 2020 will have a five-year repayment term. The repayment term will begin from when the loan is first disbursed to the borrower. If only a portion of your loan is not forgiven, you will not have to make any payments until after the lender receives payment from the SBA for the forgiven portion of the loan. If the entire amount of your PPP loan is not forgiven by the SBA, then your payments will begin approximately 30 days after the lender has received notification from the SBA that all of your loan is ineligible for forgiveness.

Alternatively, repayments begin 10 months after the end of your covered period if you don’t apply for forgiveness.

Please be aware that this answer is subject to ongoing change.