The Small Business Administration (SBA) and Department of Treasury recently released a streamlined loan forgiveness application called the EZ Forgiveness Application. This newly released three-page EZ application is significantly shorter than the traditional loan forgiveness application and requires fewer calculations and less documentation than the full application.

According to the SBA, this streamlined application was to increase flexibility and accessibility for borrowers. However, the EZ application does not apply to all Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan borrowers. The following types of borrowers can use the EZ application:

• Self-employed borrowers
• Borrowers that have no employees
• Borrowers that did not reduce employees’ numbers of hours, and did not reduce employees’ salaries or wages by more than 25%
• Borrowers that did not reduce employees’ salaries or wages by more than 25% and experienced reductions in business activity due to the coronavirus pandemic

Similar to the full loan forgiveness application, eligible borrowers using the EZ application must submit the form to the lender from whom they received their PPP loan.

SBA Releases Streamlined PPP Loan Forgiveness Form