This isn't surprising,... I recall at the time that there was a tremendous push to flood the streets with cash and very little concern with policing where the money was going.
Fed finds 75% of $800 billion Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) didn't reach workers.
- Thread starter Phenomenally Frantastic
- Start date
Our government seems incapable of doing things that aren't easy. Let's just send everyone money. If we try to send it only to those that truly need it, we might miss someone.
It's carpet bombing.
Wouldn't matter,.. If they had attempted to identify only those in need they would have phucked that up also.
I personally know of 4 Businesses that took the PPP and used it for themselves. Employees got nothing. It was two Democrats and two Republicans.
The program was a joke.
The program was a joke.
Question - these employees were not terminated, but choose not to work? You don't get unemployment if you quit on your own, right?
Don't forget about the 1.5 trillion dollars stock market injection in 2020.
www.forbes.com
Fed Injects $1.5 Trillion To Prop Up Crashing Markets
It’s the third time in four days the Fed has intervened in the repo market.
www.forbes.com
This is not true & is mostly just lazy armchair quarterbacking.
People were under stay at home orders...businesses were shuttered. You can't do that without compensating them.
They did have to do something fast, the world around us was falling apart in real time. The biggest problem(s) were they didn't stop after round 1...they just kept extending deadlines & passing new rounds of stimulus.
I was referring to the PPP loans, not the stimulus payments. I think the stimulus payments were ok. If I recall correctly, they were income based - the wealthy didn't get them
I'm a retired CPA. I have 3 good friends that own businesses - 2 got seven-figure PPP loans, the other $550k. They didn't need them.
Three is hardly a representative sample size, but I also heard many stories from other businesses that were doing just fine during the pandemic. Other businesses were destroyed. It would have been better if they could have figured out how to save those businesses rather than just reward everyone.
As far as that very first round of PPP money, they were in a 'print money & ask questions later' part of world history. The money was designed to keep people employed through (& subsequent to) the pandemic, when employers would have otherwise needed to lay people off. In that regard, it worked.
I'm a practicing CPA & work exclusively with small/ultra-small businesses. The biggest PPP allotment I saw was about $90K, all based on payroll. The issue I have is when those same businesses got round 2 of PPP the following year. I believe all you had to do was check an attestation that your business had been impaired by the pandemic & that the money was needed to keep you afloat. Those were the ones that were IMO, unneeded. Just like those that claimed pandemic unemployment while still working, or refused offers to work while accepting pandemic u/c.
Are they truly loans or more grants? My accountant suggested I apply but I was afraid I would have to pay it back eventually. Plus there was not the need....
Haven't seen a PPP loan not forgive yet.
Proceeds are not even taxable which always blows my client's minds.
This makes entirely too much sense.
I’ll be real though, after this and 2008 I think they already have plans in place and they are working as designed.
It’s like “hey bros, we see stuff is tough right now, we will send some help. Ooops we accidentally helped the wealthy again. Maybe next time.”
Better still - if you are a pass-though (S Corp or LLC) you get basis for it. Home run.
If she called them back to work wouldn't that disqualify them from unemployment? I suppose it depends on the state maybe. Here you had to start showing you were looking for work by July 2020 so for sure no one could not return and still keep getting unemployment.
The first round of PPP only required that you check a box attesting that your business was, or may be, impacted. It was worded such that essentially every business owner could legitimately answer yes, since there was so much unknown about what was to come.
To be eligible for the 2nd round, you had to have a measurable decline in gross revenue during a couple of defined periods, it's been long enough that I don't recall the exact details.
I know a grocery store owner that has 3 stores and received almost 500 grand. The one sure business that thrived during the pandemic were grocery stores and they should have been exempt from ppp.
I know someone that owns a business that has anywhere from.$5-$10 million in net income on about $75 million in sales. He received about $500k. I asked him why he asked for it and he said "it's free money, why not?". I am sure any of his 30-40 Lamborghinis, Ferraris and classic muscle cars couldn't have helped him out of his horrible situation. 'Murica
So we received a little over 200K in PPP money. We are a sales organization that is 100% commission in the building industry. When Covid hit nobody knew what was going to be considered essential or non essential. We were worried if we went a few months of no commission we would basically be out of business, which we would have. Fortunately nothing slowed down and we were left with a windfall of cash. We used this to continue to bonus employees plus help buy out an existing partner. It’s been amazing for us and our employees. Guess we were on the right side of it.
Good to hear. As usual, some companies did the right thing (either not taking the money when they didn't need it, or using it to reward their employees) and some companies were greedy bastards. Whenever you give out that much money that quickly, you are going to have a lot of abuse. I hope that they go after and punish at least the major abusers.
I hope people understand why trickle down economics don’t work after this exercise.
I like how people living on govt money got even more govt money. Trump knew what he was doing....buying votes from the poor and stupid lol.
