We had some big news today with the second round of relief. The government has changed a rule which made the original PPP loan taxable even if it was forgiven. While it wasn't technically taxable, they got around this by making the items you spend the money on no longer tax deductible. Items like wages and rent which are normally expenses for a short time were not going to be allowed. This would serve as a double whammy to anyone who kept their place open using PPP funds.
They thought they were getting a free loan and for a moment they were going to owe about a 1/3 of it back. Now that it has been solved, that is pretty exciting for companies like us.
I have been reading about the new PPP loan and it looks like it has some provisions to help restaurants this time. Obviously we are in favor of restaurants getting help. First of all, restaurants are our clients but second of all restaurants make a town feel like home. When you take away the restaurants you take away the history and central meeting point for many cities and towns.
With the new law about the PPP loan and the second round, we believe that many more restaurants will be able to survive this cold horrible winter. There is definitely some hope out there. Doctors and nurses are starting to get the vaccine and hopefully the elderly and essential workers will get it next.
Restaurant furniture isn't necessarily the best thing to be making right now but its hard for us to pivot. We do not have a full staff and doing anything different right now is hard. We even reduced the number of drop ship orders that we can handle during Christmas. We were afraid that we wouldn't meet the metrics of Amazon, Wayfair, and Target so we felt it better to take the items out of stock.
Once we are fully staffed, we plan to slowly release our quick hip program back to the mass retailers.
As of this moment on 12/25/2020 the President has not signed into the law the new act. Hopefully it will be signed very soon. It has been approved by the House and the Senate so we just need a signature.
As of 12/31/2020 the President has signed the new Law and deductible expenses will still be deductible even if they were paid with PPP funds.
As of 1/10/2021 there will be a second round of PPP funds. Companies who received the first PPP loan can apply for the second. The amount will typically be 2.5 times average monthly 2019 payroll. For restaurants and other entertainment type venues, the amount can b3 3.5 times payroll. It is unclear when normal size banks will be able to let their customers apply. The first round of funding will be underwritten by local banks.
As of 3/19/2021 both PPP loans are potentially forgivable. In addition, there are significan employee tax credits and depending on your expenses, you may be able to take advantage of all of them. The key is filling out your PPP forms so that you maximize your other deductions and take as little of the payroll deduction on the PPP loans so that you can use that for the employee tax credit. As you know, we are not lawyers or accountants, we are just bloggers. Please check with your professionals.