TJ, Leslie Dawson, and Renee Dipman explain PPP loan eligibility for notary signing agents. You qualify if you operated before February 15, 2020 and earned at least $5,000 in gross revenue in 2019 or 2020. Lying on your application can result in prosecution.
Questions this video answers
In operation prior to February 15, 2020.
At least $5,000 in gross revenue in 2019 or 2020.
$20,833 (maximum amount cited).
February 2020 bank statement, March 2021 bank statement, full tax return for 2019 or 2020, and a voided check or direct deposit form.
Chapters
Hey, this is TJ with Solutions by tj. And listen, today is going to be an amazing day. I have some beautiful guests for you guys. We are going to be talking about this infamous PPP loan and how notaries can get it. Now, I know a lot of you have just started this business in the last, I'd say, six months to a year. Have no fear, because if you have done any type of side hustle before now, if you've driven for Uber, if you've done Instacart, if you have babysat kids, whatever you've done, you still might qualify for the PPP loan. But don't let me tell you, because I brought the experts to tell you.
I have Ms. Leslie Lawson Dawson. I'm sorry, Ms. Leslie Dawson. Who's coming on with us today. Ms. Dawson, can you unmute yourself, please?
Yes. Hello. How are you? I'm good. How are you tonight?
I am perfect.
Oh, boy.
I'm just having one of those senior moments, y'.
All.
Y' all know. Hold on. I gotta come out of this wall. Wait a minute.
I'm here, y', all, but I gotta come out of the wood. All right, so, Ms. Leslie, tell them what you got for them today.
Absolutely. Well, my partner and I, Renee Dipman, we're so excited to be with you all tonight. We're gonna talk to you about the paycheck protection program. It is forgivable, and from here on out, we would just refer to it as the ppp. I'll tell you a little bit about me. I am a licensed real estate broker in north and South Carolina. I'm the owner of a development group which is a full service firm and also a loan signing agent. So I can definitely relate. And my partner is an accountant by trade and she owns a loan signing agency. So we're excited to bring to you all the information that we have in regards to the ppp. We definitely wanted to help our fellow notary community, let them know if they were eligible for the program or not, and answer any questions that you guys may have tonight.
Awesome. Awesome, awesome. So thank you, ladies, first of all, for coming, because this is important. Like, you know, I've thought about the PPP loan myself. Like, I explained to y' all what's going on here. Okay, I gotta. I gotta get on the camera. Okay. So, like, I explained to y', all, I've thought about it myself, and I just. You know what? I just didn't want to mess up. So I think there are a lot of people who don't have a Good understanding of one, what the qualifications are. Two, what can get yourself sent to jail? Hello. Yes, absolutely. Number one, what can get you sent to jail? Number two, what can get you sent to jail? Number three, what could get you sent to jail?
And here we get that one more time for the people in the back.
What can I do to go to jail? Whatever that is, I don't want no part of it. So that's the very first thing I need for everybody in the, in the audience to know. What will get you sent to jail? Because we've all heard some of those stories. And early on I heard of people who were misusing the PPP loan and they got some type of federal time or whatever. Yeah, whatever will get you sent to jail. I don't want no parts of it.
So that's one of the things. But I mean, there are legitimate things that we have done as notary public loan signing agents over a certain period of time that qualifies us for this money. Because let's be real, whole market shut down during COVID Whole market at a minimum from March to June. Everybody. I mean, we did not leave the house. It felt like when we left the house for the first time in June.
The whole world looked different. We were in amazement and other people were out like we were. We had not left our neighborhood. It was crazy. So it was. It's just interesting. So, so tell us first, either one of y', all, hey, miss, Miss California Notary with your pretty self. You look like one of my nieces.
But hello. So tell us, tell us a little bit about what the requirements are.
Absolutely, I'll be happy to go over that. So the requirements are, number one, you needed to be in operation prior to February 15, 2020. Okay. By operation, that means you needed to at least have your structure in place, whether you're a sole proprietor or llc. And you needed to be bringing in income. If you've done that, you've met requirement number one. Sorry, I'm getting hiccups all of a sudden. Let me drink a little bit of water.
Okay. And then secondly, you needed to have brought in at least $5,000 in gross revenue for your business either in 2020 or 2019, if you met those two requirements. And it was income brought in either through a 1099 Git work or how we as notaries are mostly paid 1099 through our vendors, or if you brought it in as another business under your LLC or being self employed it any of those ways, you are automatically eligible for the first PPP loan as Long as you've met those requirements, those are the only two things you needed to have done.
So, number one, you have to have made a minimum of $5,000 in either 2020 or 20 or 2019, correct?
Yes, that is correct.
And as long as that income was made prior to February 15, 2020.
Actually.
The full 5,000 did not have to be made prior to that. You just had to already have started bringing in some of it. You had the entire year to make that minimum.
Okay.
Yep, absolutely.
Awesome, awesome, awesome. Okay, so as far as. So it sounds like. I mean, if that's the only two requirements, y' all can ask any questions that y' all have. So, you know, okay, the. The number one question again, how do you go to jail?
Okay, that is quite simple. You will go to jail if you just outright lie. You cannot have. For example, if you only made $500, do not create a tax return saying you made 5,000. Okay? The government can track that. That would be a lie. So what we recommend what they do ask for. I'll tell you the documents. They're going to ask for proof. Okay? They're going to ask for a February 2020 bank statement, number one, to see if you already had a bank account established. They will ask for a March 2021 bank statement to see if you are. If you still have a current bank account established, okay? They will ask you for your full tax return either for 2020 or 2019. They're going to want a voided check for the account that you want the funds deposited into, or they will also ask for either a direct deposit form for that account. All of those are things to make sure that the application you're putting in is a valid one. If they feel for any reason there's a discrepancy on the application, they're going to ask you for further proof. So we have had some cases where people have tried to commit fraud. Unfortunately, they haven't filed taxes in years or they were working under the table, or they weren't true entrepreneurs. Right? But they know that this was an opportunity to be able to access capital. They have created fraudulent returns just so they can get the maximum amount, which is $20833. They will catch it. Because we had so many people committing fraud previous to now, back when this was first released in April and May of 2020, that the SBA has cracked down on what they want you to show. Previous to this year, you did not have to have your taxes completed, but now you do, because they need to be able to verify that this is truly a genuine business and that you have been operating. Another thing that they're going to do is ask you when you establish your business. So that start date is very important. If you fill out your application and you really know you didn't start until May, they're going to look at that. They're going to look at that farther in detail and scrutinize it to see, okay, what proof do you have that you were operating prior to May? So that's why they are asking for the bank statements.
Gotcha. Okay, that makes sense. So lying, like. Like Thomasina said, what can get you to go to jail? Lying.
Yep. Pretty much.
Simple as that.
But, yeah. So while she comes up. So, okay, so it sounds really, really easy. So as long as you have your paperwork in order, so it doesn't matter whether you're a sole proprietor or an llc. Is that correct?
That is correct. You can be a sole proprietor or an llc, or you can even be a corporation as long as you paid yourself and show a Schedule C in your tax return. Or you have W2 employ Sam.
