My name is Matt Manero, I’m the President and Founder of Commercial Fleet Financing. I’m coming to you from my office here in Dallas, Texas and, I want to share with you what’s going on the SBA process for people to get a deep understanding of what is available to you from the SBA program, the Cares Act, and the relief that’s available for business owners across the country.

Disclaimer:

I do want to offer this up as well that, do not take my advice as gospel. I am not a CPA. I’m not your accountant. I’m not someone who you should be relying upon for this information. You need to go double check and triple check this information on your own

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CFF Brief History

I know you’ve been grinding it out and you might be a little bit scared of what’s going on, but there is good news. I started the company in 1995 in the startup phase. We had no money in 01’-02’ we almost went broke in 08’-09’ and this is another difficult economic time for all of us. I’m very sensitive about it, but here’s the difference between 95’, 01’, and 08’ the government is giving us money. In those days, you couldn’t get your hands on money.

Now we have this gift from the government called the cares act and it allows business owners to go get money from the government if we do it right.

Now, to give you perspective on that, the government surplus program, the stimulus package that was done in 08’-09’ was $500 billion.

Cares Act

So, let’s talk about it here. The Cares Act, which was signed into law last week, represents a little over $2 trillion.

Now, to give you perspective on that, the government surplus program, the stimulus package that was done in 08’-09’ was $500 billion.

This $2 trillion is being allocated by the government. $377 billion is being allocated to small business stimulus. $500 billion is being allocated to big corporations. Who’s going to get that? The airlines are going to get that. The hotels are going to get that. Boeing is going to get that. $560 billion is being allocated to individuals. I’m going to touch on that in just a second.

Stimulus Package

$153 billion is being allocated to public health and $339 billion is being allocated to State and Local governments. $43 billion is being allocated to education. They’re putting a little safety net in of $26 billion, add it all together it’s just north of $2 trillion in the stimulus package called the Cares Act.

Now I want to talk briefly about individuals, because this impacts just about all of us.

Remember, please invite your friends and family if think they would have questions, and it’s probably very beneficial to the rest of the people. So, if it’s good for the goose, it’s good for the Gander.

Individuals

I do believe that I’m going to give you a very good summary of what’s going on and what is available to you and how you can understand it.

Let’s talk briefly about the individual piece. The government is giving $1,200 per person. Everyone should begin to see that soon. It will be $2,400 as part of the stimulus package for a married couple, and $500 per qualifying child. So that’s outside of your business.

The government should be giving that to you. There are a few caveats individuals making less than $75,000 a year as who this primarily is for, and that income level of $75,000 will be based on your 2018 or 2019 tax return.

Tax Returns, Married Couple & Income

If you haven’t filed your 2019’s tax return, it will be based on your 2018’s tax return.

Married couples making less than $150,000 up to 150,000. We’ll get that $2,400, and these amounts will be adjusted based on your income.

If you are single earning over $99,000, you won’t get your $1200 bucks and if you’re married making more than $198,000, you won’t get your $2,400 bucks.

There is something else that has been extended that I think is pretty amazing. I actually have to give the government some credit here because I think they actually have created a pretty good stimulus package here, but as it relates to unemployment benefits, unemployment benefits are handled by the state in which the employees are employed in the national average for unemployment is $340 a week. That’s what the State pays people when they file for unemployment.

The government, the federal government is throwing in an extra $600 bucks a week and employee unemployment benefits, which takes the average to $940 that will go on for a period of four months.

There is a part of the stimulus package that increases the unemployment benefits to people who are laid off at this time.

Business Economic Decisions

I offer you this for those employers who are struggling and determining whether or not you should lay people off or not lay people off. There is a part of the stimulus package that increases the unemployment benefits to people who are laid off at this time, and so if the average is $340 bucks and the federal

government throws another $600 on it for four months, the people that you lay off may be getting up to

$940 maybe more in their unemployment benefits.

There is stimulus for those who are being laid off. There are two primary programs that we need to talk about today in this SBA Cares Act Stimulus package. The first is what’s called the PPP program. Many of you probably already heard about this. It’s called the Paycheck Protection Program. The second is EIDL. it stands for Economic Injury Disaster Loans, and I’m going to talk about both of those today.

Remember that if you have questions or comments, please let us know.

SBA Programs

Disclaimer: I’ll be happy to answer them to the best of my ability and as we really dig into this now, I remind everybody I’m not your CPA, do not take what I’m telling you is the gospel.

You must communicate with your CPA or banker or SBA lender to really verify everything. I am just trying to give everybody an overview as we at Commercial Fleet understands as it sits today, it has changed a lot over just the last week.

Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)

Let’s get into the PPP program, the paycheck protection program. It’s a heck of a stimulus package that’s available to business owners. A few specifics on it. Number one, the PPP program is administered by SBA approved banks. It’s different than the EIDL program, which is administered by the SBA program. A few things that are extremely beneficial on this.

Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) – Loan Fees

Number one, all loan fees are waived. Most banks will begin to accept the application starting tomorrow. There is no collateral required on a PPP. There is no personal guarantee required on a PPP loan and these loans are available until June 30th of 2020.

Why June 30th of 2020 because there’s 377 billion allotted to this and they figured that most people that we will burn through that money.

Now, the secretary of the treasury came out this week and said that the government will put more money to these programs if needed, and while I’m not an economist or an expert, I would for sure say that we will run out of the money very quickly on this.

We want to get your application in as quickly as possible. The other thing on the PPP is there will be no payments due for a minimum of six months. Let’s talk about who qualifies for the PPP program and I apologize if it’s a little bit on the on the boring side, but it’s really important for everybody to understand the nuts and bolts.

The PPP is the Stimulus Package to keep payroll running, to keep people employed.

Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) – Qualifications

Who qualifies for the PPP program? A small business with fewer than 500 employees that was in business on or before February 15th of 2020 here’s what’s really unique. This can be an S corporation, a C corporation, an LLC or a Sole Proprietorship or an Independent Contractor.

Very unusual that this is available and some of our clients at Commercial Fleet are not Corporations. They are Sole Proprietorships. That’s your Name, DBA, the name of your business, and a lot of times that’s harder for you to get approved in this situation. You’re perfectly qualified to get a PPP loan.

The PPP loan also includes certain nonprofits and tribal groups and veteran groups. When applying for the PPP loan, you need to verify that your business was economically affected or that economic uncertainty makes the loan necessary. I need you to hear that because it’s really fascinating. You will self-declare; you literally don’t even have to prove it. You just have to certify that your business has been affected by the Corona virus and that could be enough for you to qualify for the PPP.

Let’s talk about what you can use the PPP for because there is the provision of forgiveness in which the PPP loan you will be forgiven if you do certain things, you will not have to pay it back. So let’s get into a few of those details.

Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) – Payroll

The PPP is the Stimulus Package to keep payroll running, to keep people employed. So to determine monthly payroll costs, includes salary, wages, commissions, vacation pay, sick pay, leave, pay, medical pay, payment to IRA contributions, group healthcare coverages and local and state taxes. In other words, all of the payroll expense can be used for the PPP program for you to qualify. Um, it does not include federal taxes and it also does not include payroll for those making more than a $100,000 a year.

This is very, very important. If you’re applying for the PPP and you’re trying out what can you get? How much can you qualify for? You have to stop at $100,000 so the first $100,000 is included, but anything in excess is not included in determining the average monthly payroll.

So you could say to yourself, if you had someone in your office making $100,000 a year, they’re going to take the trailing 12 months.

If they’re going to divide that by 12, so call that $8,333 and you can get 2.5 times the $8,333 as a loan per employee. So, I hope everybody understood how that math gets calculated.

You’re taking the average over the last 12 months and the maximum that you can receive is 2.5 times the average payroll over the last 12 months under $100,000 caps out at $100,000 for as many employees as you have.

Very, very powerful stimulus package called the PPP.

Now what can we use the money for? The money can be used for payroll for you, your employees, but you can also use the money for rent. Mortgage obligations, utilities and other obligations you may have.

Stick to that because I’m going to come back to that in just a second. If you don’t use the money, the PPP money for the intended purpose of what I just outlined, you can use the money at an extremely low interest rate. 0.5% is what they expect it to be.

Half a percent and you will have a payback period that will range from 2 years to 10 years on that.

Even if you didn’t use it to keep your staff employed you can get it forgiven because if you use it for the intended purpose, which is to keep people on your payroll, you can get that loan forgiven. It means you pay nothing for that stimulus.

I like what they’re doing there, but even if you took the money and you didn’t use it for what it was intended, it can convert to a half a percent loan to you. Now when do you have to pay it back? The loan term specified by the treasury guidance is 2 years, so 2 years could be they extend it. If it’s not for the purpose design, it could extend the term and loan payments are deferred for the first six months.

Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) – Loan Details

If you take the PPP, you don’t have to pay it. You have 6 months of deferment. There is no prepayment penalty and if it’s used in the proper way, it can be forgiven and waived.

Now I’ve had a number of customers ask us this question because this happened to people in 2008 and 2009 were perhaps their mortgages were forgiven, a portion of their mortgages were forgiven, and they were then issued a 1099 for the difference which became taxable and in the Cares Act it is not allowed to be treated as taxable income.

I’m going to read you specifically, any portion of the loan that is forgiven is excluded from taxable income. So that means that the government is not going to send you a 1099. If you took out $100,000 or $200,000 the government is not going to send you a 1099 for what they forgave because of that clause. Powerful stuff.

How do you get this loan forgiven? How does it become an opportunity for you to get the loan from the government and not have to pay it back?

Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Loan – Forgiveness

You are eligible for loan forgiveness for the amounts you spent over the next 8 weeks after receiving the loan for certain qualifying expenses. The qualifying expenses of the business over the 8-week period include payroll costs, rent, interest on mortgage debt and utilities.

Here’s something that’s really important because the PPP is being issued by a bank and not directly from the SBA. It will be the bank’s responsibility within 60 days to approve or deny the forgiveness. Sounds really good. I think there’s a big question mark based on that sentence…

The bank who granted the loan is who will determine the loan forgiveness based on the type of criteria above meeting the documentation that you provide that complies to you using the money for forgiveness.

The business will have to request their forgiveness of the loan with providing evidence to the bank and the bank will have 60 days to approve or deny the loan. The forgiveness rep.

I believe everyone should be applying for the PPP loan.

Economic Injury Disaster Loans

The EIDL the Economic Injury Disaster Loan is the loan that triggers the $10,000 that everyone’s been talking about, which is basically this concept of free money being given to everybody in $10,000 increments in as little as three days.

You don’t get that $10,000 if you apply directly for the PPP, you have to apply for the EIDL so you will get, if you apply for the EIDL, you will get it as long as there’s enough money, $10,000 relief in 3 days and then you will find out if you were approved for the EIDL loan.

My guess is that by filling out the simple application at sba.gov, you will probably get $10,000 if you do it quickly and then you will probably be contacted and asked for additional information, which I’m going to go through in just a little bit of what we think the additional information that you need to prepare is.

Let’s talk about a few things about the EIDL. Who’s eligible for businesses and nonprofits with no more than 500 employees?

Economic Injury Disaster Loans – Eligibility

Again, sole proprietorship’s with or without employees, independent contractors, all States and political subdivisions qualify as disaster areas so States can actually apply for this as well. Here’s what you need to qualify. Your credit score is needed to qualify and once again you will have to self-certify that you have been affected by the Corona virus and your business has fallen on hard times because of Corona. So it does matter about your credit score.

Even though I’ve read that they are being very delinquent on credit scores for this program. But you will also once again self-certify that your business has been hurt. In other words, you may not have to actually prove it. The maximum loan amount for applicants who demonstrate economic injury and the ability to repay may receive up to $2 million.

Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) – Details

The EIDL advance of advances up to $10,000 and they will be processed within 3 days and these advances do not have to be repaid. So, if $10,000 helps you right now, you should immediately apply for the ideal a loan and then that will trigger a deeper application process for you.

You must use for the following purposes, providing sick leave to employees, maintaining payroll during business disruptions and slowdowns, meaning increased supply chain costs.

In other words, let’s say you’re in the restaurant business and your normal supplier can’t get you the food or product that you typically would sell, and you have to go to a different provider and they’re more expensive.

That’s the difference in supply chain, making rent or mortgage payments and repaying debts that cannot otherwise be paid due to lost revenues. The EIDL is much more like a traditional SBA loan and it is issued by the SBA, whereas the PPP is issued by SBA approved banks.

Economic Injury Disaster Loans – Terms

The loan terms, the borrower may receive up to 2 million depending on the bar’s demonstrate economic injury ability to repay. The interest rate will be no more than 4% and the loan term will be no more than 30 years.

You can get a relatively low interest rate for a long period of time. Personal guarantees are required unless the EIDL advanced or the loan amount is $200,000 or less. If it’s less than $200,000 that you’re applying for, you do not need to issue your personal guarantee.

If $200,000 is what you need to get through this Corona pandemic, then you don’t even have to put up a personal guarantee. There is a waiver on this, the EIDL program waves the 1 year in business prior to the disaster requirement for businesses and therefore you only need to be in business on February 1st of 2020 and you will have met the requirement for the EILD loan.

If you’re looking for a little bit more of a traditional SBA loan, you can apply for the EIDL program.

Review

We’ve covered 3 loans so far today.

What is the individual impact? How can you and your family get money as a business owner? Whether you’re a corporation, LLC, S Corp, C Corp or sole-proprietor or independent contractor, you can qualify for the PPP program and potentially get that loan forgiven not to be paid back.

If you’re looking for a little bit more of a traditional SBA loan, you can apply for the EIDL program. If you want to apply for the PPP, the place you should start is going to an approved SBA bank. Now some of you should call your local banker and ask, are you an approved SBA bank?

Go to sba.gov and look for a list of approved SBA banks. It’s not hard to find them. They’re wide open for business and they know what to do to process this stuff as efficiently as they know how to do it.

Action Steps

There are a lot of things that have not been figured out in either of these programs, so there’s still a lot of moving parts, but the application can be started right away and should be started right away from an SBA lender and SBA bank lender.

If you want the EIDL program, you apply directly at sba.gov for that, two different sources of the money, two different programs. Now let’s talk about the action steps that you will most likely be required to take.

The first, you’ve got to pick the program that you think is best for your business. They can be combined if you choose wrong, you can eventually combine them, but I’m a little unclear on this, whether it is okay to have a PPP and an EIDL I’m not 100% sure on that. You need to contact your bank as soon as possible to get the organization registered and the application started.

Documents

You will probably most likely need to prepare documentation as follows, the average monthly payroll and the average monthly full-time employee list based on the 12 months from April 19th through March of 2020 that’s the trailing 12 months.

What does your payroll look like and what is your employee count look like for that period of time? You’ll need to also prepare the average payroll by category, salary, hourly commission, vacation, six leave, etcetera.

You’ll need to provide what is your monthly rent, what is the amount that you’ve been spending on utilities for the last 12 months? If you have a mortgage, what is the interest that you’re paying on the building that you may own, and then the basic stuff, the tax ID number, the full legal entity number, and then of course the ownership breakdown.

It’s a pretty simple process to get started right now.

Closing Thoughts

A summary of the Cares Act is in a PDF form for everybody to take a look at it.

Again, do me a favor, if this was beneficial for you, just give us a share I would really appreciate it.

I wish everybody has the courage to take action and go get your hands on this money. You are crazy if you don’t take action. If you’re sitting on the ship and you feel as though it’s about to crash on the shore and you don’t pull the rudder or at least turn it to one side of the other, we have nobody to blame, But ourselves for that.

Just win the day one day after the next day, after the next day.

Now is the time to have the courage to take action and start the process to go get your hands on this money.

I’m Matt Manero with Commercial Fleet. I’m the Founder and President of Commercial Fleet Financing. D me a favor and take what I’ve given to you as brief education. That should be double checked, and triple checked with your SBA provider, your bank, and your CPA and your controller.

I hope this was helpful for you guys.

I hope everybody’s fighting the good fight. Nobody’s going to get out of this thing unscaved, but there is something on the other side of this. It’s called stimulus money. Go get your hands on it. Fight the good fight. Treat every customer like they’re your only customer and win the day. Don’t worry about winning the battle. Just win the day one day after the next day, after the next day.

So, thanks everybody. I hope this was helpful. I wish you to be healthy, and I wish that you see how this whole thing finishes out because everybody’s going to survive and we’re going to be okay. Take care everybody. We’ll talk soon.

SBA Loan ResourcesResources

I’m going to put in the a summary of the entire Care Acts.

I’m going to put a PDF for everybody to see and read on your own the summary that we’ve come up with.

I will put a link to the application in which you can get started on applying for the PPP loan. Now let’s move to the next loan. Under the Care Acts called the Economic Injury Disaster Loan. It is referred to as the EIDL loan.

Look Up ANY SBA Document form here: https://www.sba.gov/document/

Disaster Loan Online Application and details: https://disasterloan.sba.gov/ela/

Visit the SBA website for more information: https://www.sba.gov/

SBA: PPP PDF FOR DIRECT APP

SBA: EIDL DISASTER LOAN DIRECT APP

Online Application: https://covid19relief.sba.gov/#/

SBA GOV: Applying for SBA Disaster Loans (EIDL) – PDF Packet

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About Commercial Fleet Financing, Inc.: At Commercial Fleet Financing (CFF), our pros have given smart advice to fleet owners and owner-operators in the transportation, moving, towing or construction industries for more than two decades. With CFF, finding the right financing solutions is a phone call away and most borrowers secure commercial vehicle financing with ease. To talk directly with one of our finance pros and get started with a credit approval in as little as two hours.
CFF’s phone number is (469) 281-2962.