Two of the most appealing factors of the small business portion of the stimulus package were the loan forgiveness options and a forgivable 3 day $10,000 emergency loan advance. After the bill was passed, business owners quickly realized that accessing these features would not be as easy as promised.

It turned out that the $10,000 forgivable loan advance would not take 3 days. The approval process took anywhere from 2 weeks to a month. It was later revealed that the 10 grand was not guaranteed but instead would be $1,000 per employee up to a total of $10,000. This outraged businesses and even prompted a lawsuit.

To add to the confusion, the forgivable emergency advance was separate from the forgivable loan. This means that any amount not requested in the advance would be charged 3.75% interest on a 30 year loan.

It was also was later revealed that 75% of the forgivable portion would need to consist of payroll expenses. This along with many other rules and guidelines were not communicated clearly by the SBA and the banks servicing these loans. Reading through the Small Business reddit thread showed just how frustrated small business owners were over this rollout.





For more information on these loans, we complied a list of resources here.