Paycheck Protection Program
Last modified 6/18/2020 8:16:25 AM EST | Added by Paywow Team

The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a $349 billion program, is part of the CARES Act and provides loans to help small businesses pay their employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

What are the eligibility criteria?

If you’ve 500 employees working for you and your business is operational since February 15, 2020, you’re likely eligible for this relief money.

Use of funds

You should use at least 75% of the loan amount for payroll purposes such as wages, salary, employee benefits, and state & local taxes. And, the remaining 25% can be used for mortgage interest payments, rent or lease payments and utilities. 

Though it’s a loan, if you use the funds as mentioned above, your loan amount may be completely forgiven. Also, if you don’t use the funds for the right purpose, you may be penalized.

Note: If any of your employees receive an annual salary of over $100,000, you can claim only the first $100,000. That is, if an employee receives a salary of $150,000, you shouldn’t use the excess $50,000 for PPP. 

Fund Amount

The maximum amount you can receive through a PPP loan is 2.5 times the amount of your monthly average payroll cost in 2019 (maximum of $10 million). You may also check out how the PPP loan amount is estimated for each business type here.

To calculate your loan eligibility, you may use our PPP calculator. 

Applying for loan

You’ll have to apply manually with one of SBA approved lenders. To secure the loan, a PPP report should be submitted to the IRS detailing the various payroll calculations to determine the maximum PPP loan amount. This report can be generated right from your PayWow account. 

When will the loan be forgiven?

All the following expenses can be forgiven in 8 weeks following the loan signing date:

Payroll: salary, wage, family, medical, or sick leave, and health benefits

Rent, Utilities, and Mortgage interest: If the service began before February 15, 2020

Keep your records to prove your expenses during the loan period. The lender will make a decision within 60 days of your forgiveness application submission.

Please be advised that if you’ve been approved of a PPP loan, you won’t be able to claim employee retention credits and may defer the social security taxes until your loan amount is forgiven.