Eligible businesses will have an additional five weeks to apply for Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) loans, after President Trump signed a bill on July 4, 2020, extending the application deadline to August 8, 2020. The deadline otherwise would have expired on June 30, 2020.

The deadline extension is just the latest of many changes to the PPP, which offers low interest, forgivable loans to small- and medium-sized businesses that maintain their payrolls during the COVID-19 pandemic. The program initially attracted overwhelming interest from businesses – so much so that the original $349 billion allocated to the program was exhausted in less than two weeks.  But shifting rules – and fears that businesses could face civil or even criminal penalties for misusing loan funds – caused some potential borrowers to avoid the program and even return their loans.

Please read our full Legal Alert detailing this latest development and additional insight of interest to borrowers.