On Wednesday of this week, the Small Business Administration (SBA) posted its latest guidance/clarification on the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The guidance was provided as Question 46 in the Department of the Treasury Q&A relating the PPP.  You may recall as we advised you last week, the then-prevailing guidance stated that borrowers would have to submit a certification of necessity by yesterday, May 14. Now however, under the provisions of the new guidance as Q46 points out, any borrower who took less than $2 million will be “deemed” to have made the certification in good faith when they submitted the loan request. In those instances, borrowers needn’t worry about this at all so long as they did not commit outright fraud in taking the loan. Our friends in the franchisee law firm of Dady & Gardner advise us that affiliation rules remain the same, so restaurants and franchises are still exempt for the purpose of aggregating loans to get over the $2 million mu might have borrowed more than $2 million, that will not play into the consideration of whether or not you have been deemed to have given these answers in good faith. As the SBA announced previously, all loans over $2 million will be audited. Finally, if one is audited and the SBA ultimately determines that the certification was made without “adequate basis”, the borrower will be required to repay any amount that’s been unpaid, including any previously forgiven amount. As long as repayment is made, there will be no further enforcement – in other words, no additional penalty!