Most Self-Employed and Independent Contractors Don't Realize They Can Still Qualify for a 100% Forgivable PPP Loan

Yes! If you work for yourself, or as an independent contractor - you are eligible! This includes anyone who is self-employed, a 1099 independent contractor, or sole proprietor.

Basically any money you made. That includes any wages, commissions, income, cash tips, or other earnings you receive. This is capped at $100,000 per year.

If you qualify, you can receive 2.5 months of your normal payroll / earnings! That means if you normally earn $60,000 per year (or did in 2019 before things dropped way down in 2020), you could get $12,500. If your business is in the hospitality or food industry, that number goes up to 3.5x.

No! You do not need to have any employees to qualify. If you are self employed, an independent contractor or a sole proprietor, you can qualify.

That’s pretty simple. What your entire loan amount is based on getting 2.5x your monthly earnings (or 3.5x if you’re going for 2nd draw and are in the food or hospitality industry). To find this: 

1. Find your IRS 1040 Schedule C Tax Return from 2019 (the normal one you get)
2. Find the amount on Line 31. (if that’s over $100,000, reduce it to $100,000)
3. Divide that number by 12 (to find your average monthly earnings)
4. Multiply that monthly average by 2.5
5. Viola! 

For example, if your Line 31 says you earned $60,000 in 2019, you could apply for a loan of $12,500 ($60,000 / 12 = $5,000. Then $5,000 x 2.5). 

That’s alright! We can help you fill out what’s called a Draft Schedule C, which provides an estimate of earnings for that year. 

You can apply to have your loan 100% forgiven if you meet certain criteria (which are pretty easy to meet). You have to: 

• Spend that money within 24 weeks (6 months)
• Employee and compensation levels are maintained (which if you’re self-employed is just you)
• At least 60 percent of the proceeds are spent on payroll costs, and the rest goes to other eligible expenses (wages / payroll, mortgage interest, rent, utilities, taxes, benefits, etc). 

 Then we’ll help you fill out the required paperwork to get it 100% forgiven! 

After receiving hundreds of billions in new funding December 2020, the PPP program was extended to March 31, 2021, or as long as funds last. 

Yes! If you had any kind of self-employed income in 2019 or 2020 (as long as you began receiving that before Feb 15, 2020), you can still receive PPP funds. 

That includes any 1099, self-employed or sole-proprietor income. 

You receiving any other form of income (eg from investments, an employer payroll, etc) does not disqualify you from applying for PPP, as long as you have separate self-employment income. 

Nope! No personal guarantee or collateral is required!

Nope! No credit checks are performed, so there is no credit numbers required.

So this one is a little trickier. While yes you can get a PPP loan, you technically can’t use it to pay payroll if you’re on unemployment benefits. That means you couldn’t get it forgiven. So if you want to get the PPP, you’d have to get off unemployment for that time you’re paying payroll with the PPP loan.

Yes you can! The second draw was setup to help the more harder-hit businesses. You can qualify if you have:

• No more than 300 employees
• Have used or will use the full amount of the first PPP
• Can demonstrate you have to have at least 1 quarter (3 month period) in 2020 with a 25% drop in revenue compared with the same period in 2019.

The PPP program was designed to be used for: 

• Payroll / salary costs
• Employee Benefits (health insurance, retirement, etc)
• Interest on mortgages, (if incurred before February 15, 2020)
• Rent (if lease was signed before February 15, 2020)
• Utilities (that were in service before February 15, 2020)
• Operations costs such as software, cloud computing, and other human resources and accounting items
• Covered property damage costs related to property damage due to public disturbances that occurred during 2020 that are not covered by insurance; and
• Supplier costs

Payroll cost include:

• Salary, wages, commissions, or tips (with a maximum of $100,000/yr for each employee);
• Employee benefits - costs for vacation, parental, family, medical, or sick leave, health care insurance premiums, and retirement benefits
• State and local taxes for employee compensation
• Covered worker protection expenditure such as personal protective equipment and adaptive investments to help a loan recipient comply with federal and/or state health and safety guidelines; and
• For the self-employed (sole proprietor or independent contractor): any wages, commissions, income, or earnings you make (capped at $100,000 per year).

The interest rate is 1%. But that doesn’t matter if you get it all forgiven.

The loan term is 5 years, but you can get it 100% forgiven if you apply within the first 8-24 weeks (2-6 months)

Yes! There are no prepayment penalties or fees. But just know if you qualify for 100% forgiveness, you don’t need to worry about that at all.

It’s a pretty simple process. As long as you meet the following criteria, you can have your PPP loan 100% forgiven. You have to:

• Spend that money within 24 weeks (6 months)
• Employee and compensation levels are maintained (which if you’re self-employed is just you)
• At least 60 percent of the proceeds are spent on payroll costs, and the rest goes to other eligible expenses (wages / payroll, mortgage interest, rent, utilities, taxes, benefits, etc). 

Then we’ll help you fill out the paperwork needed. You’ll need to provide some documentation that proves you actually spent it accordingly (like a bank statement), and you can have it 100% forgiven. 

You can have your loan 100% forgiven when you apply within 8 to 24 weeks of receiving it (2 to 6 months). 

To have your loan 100% forgiven, you’ll need to have: 

• Spend that money within 24 weeks (6 months)
• Employee and compensation levels are maintained (which if you’re self-employed is just you)
• At least 60 percent of the proceeds are spent on payroll costs, and the rest goes to other eligible expenses (wages / payroll, mortgage interest, rent, utilities, taxes, benefits, etc). 

Then we’ll help you fill out the paperwork needed. You’ll need to provide some documentation that proves you actually spent it accordingly (like a bank statement), and you can have it 100% forgiven.

Payroll costs will be capped at $100,000 per year for each employee. 

Having your loan forgiven is based on you maintaining or quickly rehiring employees and maintaining payroll levels. The amount you get forgiven will be reduced if full-time headcount declines, or if salaries and wages decrease.

If you are applying for the 1st round of PPP loans, then you can have no more than 500 employees. 

If you’re applying for the 2nd round of PPP, you can have no more than 300 employees.