Payroll Protection Act (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Program (EIDL) - Is your PPP Application Ready?
By Brian Breaux
Louisiana Farm Bureau Senior Commodity/Public Policy Director
Payroll Protection Act (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Program (EIDL) - Is your PPP Application Ready?
The Senate has passed the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act (H.R. 266) and the House will vote on the measure on Thursday, April 23rd. According to Louisiana bankers, many Louisiana farmers PPP applications did not file a PPP application because H-2A wages could not be included in PPP average wage calculations. Other farmers applications were not completed and filed in time before the PPP funds ran out.
In addition to the $310 billion for the Payroll Protection Program (PPP), this legislation also contains an additional $60 billion for the SBA - Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Program with new eligibility for farmers and ranchers. The new eligibility allows agricultural operations with fewer than 500 employees to qualify for the SBA’s - Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Program, which offers up to $10,000 in advance to businesses that are losing revenue amid the coronavirus pandemic.
It is not known if the second round of PPP funding will permit H-2A wages to be included in average wage calculations for SBA-PPP Loans. However, farmers are being strongly encouraged to continue working aggressively with their accountant, tax preparer and/or financial advisor to submit a PPP loan application and an EIDL loan application depending on their particular situation.
These SBA-PPP loans will be provided on a first-come-first-serve basis and will go quickly, possibly in as little as 4 days once the SBA begins processing the SBA- PPP and EIDL Loans. The PPP pays for up to 8 weeks of employee wages with an SBA -PPP Loan that can be forgiven when 75% is used to pay for employee wages. Please try not to miss out on these valuable assistance programs.
If you need assistance to submit an application for an SBA-PPP loan, we were reminded that the Farm Bureau Bank is an SBA lender that is qualified and can assist farmers in filing an SBA-PPP loan application.
Here is a message from the Farm Bureau Bank:
“The Senate has passed an additional $310 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program for Small Business Loans and it will hopefully pass in the House tomorrow. Many Members are challenged with accessing these funds due to huge backlogs at large national banks and the lack of participation by many Farm Credit banks and small community banks. The demand is enormous, and we expect this round of funding to run out in a just a few short days. We encourage Members to act now and apply if they want access to the program.
We are here to help. Farm Bureau Bank continues to process applications so that we can quickly submit the information to the SBA as soon as the system is reopened for application submission, which may be as early as Friday. We have the capacity and expertise to help your Members as we have already worked with Members in 26 states. The details of the program, as well as access to the application, are attached. Both can also be found on our website, www.farmbureaubank.com.”