Here at Ubiquity Retirement + Savings, our heart goes out to our fellow members of the small business community as we all deal with the impacts of the ongoing global health challenge and market volatility. As we navigate this challenging time together, we’re committed to providing you with information, resources, and support along the way.

On March 27th 2020, the U.S. government passed the “Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act” (the CARES Act) to help businesses, families, and individuals make ends meet during the COVID-19 crisis.

The $2 trillion package is the largest financial assistance bill ever and sets aside $350 billion specifically to help small businesses affected by the pandemic.

We broke down the provisions that most impact small business owners, like you.

Paycheck Protection Program

One of the most emotionally and financially difficult challenges facing small business owners right now is retaining their employees. The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) created by CARES was created to incentivize small businesses to not lay off workers and to rehire laid-off workers that lost jobs due to COVID-19 disruptions.

How does the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) work?

Currently, the Small Business Association (SBA) guarantees small business loans that are given out by a network of more than 800 lenders across the U.S. The Paycheck Protection Program creates a special kind of emergency loan that can be forgiven when used to maintain payroll through June. This program also expands the lending network beyond just the SBA so that more banks, credit unions, and lenders can issue those loans.

If your business continues paying employees at normal levels during the eight weeks following the origination of the loan, then the amount they spent on payroll costs (excluding costs for any compensation above $100,000 annually), mortgage interest, rent payments and utility payments can be combined and that portion of the loan will be forgiven.

Ultimately, the goal of the PPP is to help more workers remain employed, affected small businesses stay afloat, and our economy snap-back quickly after the crisis.

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