It was bananas. I applied like any sane person would do based on everyone’s advice. I got the money 3 months later, then 2 months later I got a letter saying “ok, we reviewed your loan - all good and no taxes on it, enjoy!” I was just like WTF. Took the money and basically built a free house from the bank. 3 years later and people can barely afford rent. The irony of it all is the people that can’t afford rent and are complaining about costs are in the majority of people trying to whitewash everything and a lot of older people that refinanced their homes and gained six figures in equity are calling for the people to be punished. It’s like bizarro world and shows how much people are brainwashed by politics. Modern day politics are poison, pure poison.
People forget people were applying for the loans in April and May, when no one knew how bad things were going to get. And the funds were only forgivable if spent on payroll, rent, etc. For most clients I worked with, payroll was the vast majority of eligible expenses.
The unemployment systems were overloaded, and PPP was intended to funnel money to people who would have otherwise ended up in the unemployment systems.
Vilifying people who applied for loans and kept people on payroll after the government shut their businesses down is revisionist history ********.
Sure there was some fraud. Sure, a lot of businesses rebounded faster than they ever would have expected when the governments shut the world down.
The ability to deduct expenses paid with the money was a welcome gift, making it absolutely tax free.