On Friday March 27, 2020, the President signed into law, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (H.R. 748) or “CARES Act,” providing for, among other things, the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”).
The U.S. Small Business Administration (“SBA”), in consultation with the U.S. Department of the Treasury, has issued additional responses to frequently asked questions by lenders and borrowers regarding the PPP (the “SBA PPP FAQs”).
A current copy of the SBA PPP FAQs as of May 3, 2020 is available here.
On May 3, 2020, the SBA updated the SBA PPP FAQs with, among other things, Q/A 40, which provides:
Question: Will a borrower’s PPP loan forgiveness amount (pursuant to section 1106 of the CARES Act and SBA’s implementing rules and guidance) be reduced if the borrower laid off an employee, offered to rehire the same employee, but the employee declined the offer?
Answer: No. As an exercise of the Administrator of the SBA’s and the U.S. Treasury Secretary’s authority under Section 1106(d)(6) of the CARES Act to prescribe regulations granting de minimis exemptions from the Act’s limits on loan forgiveness, SBA and Treasury intend to issue an interim final rule excluding laid-off employees whom the borrower offered to rehire (for the same salary/wages and same number of hours) from the CARES Act’s loan forgiveness reduction calculation. The interim final rule will specify that, to qualify for this exception, the borrower must have made a good faith, written offer of rehire, and the employee’s rejection of that offer must be documented by the borrower. Employees and employers should be aware that employees who reject offers of re-employment may forfeit eligibility for continued unemployment compensation.
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