Whether you consider it good news or bad news, the US Treasury and the Small Business Administration has released details on the recipients of loans under the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”). I think it’s good news but apparently someone thinks it’s bad news because it took a lot of negotiating to get the information released. These are the loans that were authorized under the CARES Act of 2020 that were intended to help keep citizens on payroll during the COVID-19 related shutdowns and quarantines this spring. And in some cases, the shutdowns are still continuing so the PPP loan program was extended last week.
After a lot of legislative pressure, the US Treasury and SBA has released information on the recipients of the loans.
Check out the information here:
https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/cares-act/assistance-for-small-businesses/sba-paycheck-protection-program-loan-level-data
Loans under $150,000
So for loans under $150,000, the file will show you the loan amount, city, state, zip code, lender, and other demographics of the recipient. You can download a CSV file from the Treasury’s website per state.
Loans of $150,000 and greater
The file for these loans is for all 56 states and territories in one CSV file. Its a huge file but it gives you all the details of the borrower except for the actual loan amount. The file breaks the loans down into ranges for the amount of the loan.
I’m still looking over the information so I haven’t decided which is better. I did find my clients in the list but I figure I’ll look at it closer at a later time, maybe after the July 15, 2020 tax deadline. If you want to see some analysis, hop on over to #TaxTwitter and you can see some reviews of the date.
Adam Markowitz, an EA in Florida, has looked at some of the details for Florida and gives some insight in this thread:
Here’s another thread by Kenneth Vogel on who received the PPP loans. I’m not convinced any of these businesses did anything wrong. The purpose was to make sure the employees of the businesses were able to be paid while the businesses had a shutdown, or at least reduced amount of business. I do see the value in making it transparent when politically connected businesses got the loans, if for no other reason than to help insure all businesses were treated equally under the rules for the program.