Lennar Trade Partners

The safety of our Associates, Customers and Trade Partners is our Number 1 Priority at Lennar. As we navigate these uncertain times, we have continued to stay focused on identifying ways of supporting you, our Trade Partners.

We have created this website for the sole purpose of helping you navigate the recently enacted COVID-19 stimulus legislation (the CARES Act). This website is intended to be a resource to help you identify and take advantage of the many stimulus provisions in the CARES Act that provide small business owners with liquidity to manage their cashflow through this current environment.

This website includes our high-level summary of the provisions we believe most important for you, our Trade Partners, and your employees.
We want this website to be a valuable reference tool for you during this difficult time. Therefore, we have included links below to publicly available documents and online resources that we believe will be most helpful to you. We will be continuing to update these links as other relevant information becomes available.

We encourage you to ask any questions you might have via E-mail to:
TradePartnerAssistance@Lennar.com

When you submit your E-mail, please include your name, company name, and market location with your question. We will respond to your questions as soon as possible, using all resources available to us, including our external advisors.

Please keep in mind that our intent is to provide you focused information that will be useful for discussion with your bankers, employees, and advisors.

 

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) issued guidance on Friday April 3 relating to the Paycheck Protection Program (included on our website herein). Such guidance clarified that payments made to independent contractors do not qualify and will not be counted as payroll cost for purposes of calculating the loan amount under this program. As discussed on our Sunday March 29^th calls, the law was unclear on this point, written in an ambiguous manner and could have be interpreted as qualifying as payroll cost. However, SBA lenders are following this guidance and will not allow these costs to be included for purposes of calculating a loan amount.

This guidance does however allow for independent contractors that are providing services to other businesses to apply for their own loans. They would include in their loan calculation, amounts paid to their employees, as well as amounts paid to themselves (the owners) as payroll costs for purposes of calculating the loan amount. This will allow them to receive needed cash to keep them in business.

We will keep you posted on this and continue to work on this issue.

 

News Flash 4/23/2020

The House passed a $484 billion aid package for small businesses, hospitals and testing. The bill now goes to President Trump, who says he will sign the measure.

Click here to read the Wall Street Journal’s article regarding the aid package.

The CARES Act

 

Documents and Summaries

Lennar Cares Act Summary

Resumen de la Ley de Socorro para Pequeños Negocios ante el COVID-19

Perspectiva General

US Treasury CARES Update For Small Businesses (April 2nd, 2020)

The Small Business Owners Guide to the CARES Act

The Small Business Owners Guide to the CARES Act 2

Section-by-section summary of CARES Act published by Senate staff

COVID-19 Stimulus: A taxpayer guide published by Deloitte Tax LLP

Paycheck Protection Program

 

Congress Passes and President Signs Bill Giving Small Businesses More Time to Spend PPP Forgivable Loans
June 5, 2020

Forbes: Trump Signs New Law Relaxing PPP Rules: What You Need To Know

The U.S. Senate passed the House version of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) legislation Wednesday night, tripling the time allotted for small businesses and other PPP loan recipients to spend the funds and still qualify for forgiveness of the loans.

The bill passed in a unanimous voice vote hours after Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson initially blocked it. Among the key provisions is a change in the threshold for the amount of PPP funds required to be spent on payroll costs to qualify for forgiveness to 60% of the loan amount.

The Senate approval sent the House bill, called the Paycheck Protection Flexibility Act, to President Donald Trump, who signed it Friday.

The vote had to be unanimous because the Senate is not officially in session. That meant that any senator could force the matter to be delayed until the Senate returned to Washington with enough members for a quorum and a vote.

Leaders from both parties in the Senate pushed to pass the legislation on Wednesday as the clock on the initial eight-week window recently expired for the first recipients of PPP loans. Johnson dropped his objections after Senate leader Mitch McConnell agreed to add a letter to the Congressional Record clarifying that June 30 remains the deadline for applying to receive a PPP loan.

Following is a summary of the legislation’s main points compiled by the AICPA:

• Current PPP borrowers can choose to extend the eight-week period to 24 weeks, or they can keep the original eight-week period. New PPP borrowers will have a 24-week covered period, but the covered period can’t extend beyond Dec. 31, 2020. This flexibility is designed to make it easier for more borrowers to reach full, or almost full, forgiveness.
• Under the language in the House bill, the payroll expenditure requirement drops to 60% from 75% but is now a cliff, meaning that borrowers must spend at least 60% on payroll or none of the loan will be forgiven. Currently, a borrower is required to reduce the amount eligible for forgiveness if less than 75% of eligible funds are used for payroll costs, but forgiveness isn’t eliminated if the 75% threshold isn’t met.  Rep. Chip Roy (Texas), who co-sponsored the bill in the House, said in a House speech that the bill intended the sliding scale to remain in effect at 60%. Senators Marco Rubio and Susan Collins indicated that technical tweaks could be made to the bill to restore the sliding scale.
• Borrowers can use the 24-week period to restore their workforce levels and wages to the pre-pandemic levels required for full forgiveness. This must be done by Dec. 31, a change from the previous deadline of June 30.
• The legislation includes two new exceptions allowing borrowers to achieve full PPP loan forgiveness even if they don’t fully restore their workforce. Previous guidance already allowed borrowers to exclude from those calculations employees who turned down good faith offers to be rehired at the same hours and wages as before the pandemic. The new bill allows borrowers to adjust because they could not find qualified employees or were unable to restore business operations to Feb. 15, 2020, levels due to COVID-19 related operating restrictions.
• New borrowers now have five years to repay the loan instead of two. Existing PPP loans can be extended up to 5 years if the lender and borrower agree. The interest rate remains at 1%.
• The bill allows businesses that took a PPP loan to also delay payment of their payroll taxes, which was prohibited under the CARES Act.

 

Additional Paycheck Protection Program Sources and Links

4/7/20 Paycheck Protection Program Update FAQ

Summary of Paycheck Protection Loan Program and FAQ (April 3rd, 2020)

Chase’s Website for Paycheck Protection Program

Wells Fargo’s Website for Paycheck Protection Program

Bank of American Paycheck Protection Program Loan Application Process

Paycheck Protection Program Overview

Understanding-the-Paycheck-Protection-Program (002)

List of Top 100 Most Active SBA Lenders by volume

Paycheck Protection Program Borrower Information Fact Sheet

Paycheck Protection Program Lender Information Fact Sheet

Borrower Paycheck Protection Program Application

An Overview On Affiliation (SBA)

 

Family Medical Leave Act Expansion

Family Medical Leave Act Expansion Guidance (Note #58 and #59 for businesses with less than 50 employees)

 

Conference Calls

Two conference calls were held on March 29th, 2020 hosted by Lennar Corporate and representatives from Deloitte.  We have provided the calls for you to listen at your convenience below.

12:00 PM ET Replay: Dial 866-376-5149

3:00 PM ET Replay: Dial 888-667-5778

The replays will only be available until April 29th, 2020.

Information for Independent Contractors

The CARES Act dramatically expands the availability of small business loans and unemployment insurance (UI) benefits to workers impacted by COVID-19 who otherwise would not normally receive such benefits, including independent contractors and other so-called gig workers. The law (1) expands the definition of workers eligible to receive benefits, (2) increases the amount of available benefits, and (3) extends the time during which benefits may be collected see below.

Payroll Protection Program Loans for Independent Contractors

For independent contractors and self-employed individuals, you can start to apply for the loan on April 10th. You must apply through an approved bank, which included all SBA and FDIC insured banks, many banks require you to have an account so it’s best to go to you regular bank.  The maximum loan you can get is 2.5 times your average monthly payroll for the prior 12 months, subject to a cap of 100,000 for any one individual.

There is more information included here on our website on applying for the PPP loan program.

Unemployment Benefits for Independent Contractors and Gig Workers

 

Who is eligible?

Ordinarily, workers such as those who are self-employed, independent contractors, or gig workers do not qualify for unemployment insurance.

The CARES Act creates “Pandemic Unemployment Assistance” to provide unemployment benefits to certain workers otherwise ineligible for unemployment benefits. The CARES Act permits an individual who is self-employed, an independent contractor, or a gig worker to receive unemployment benefits if the individual self-certifies that he or she is able and available to work within the meaning of applicable state law and is “unemployed, partially unemployed or unable or unavailable to work” because of one or more of the following COVID-19–related reasons such as:

• • • • • He or she is diagnosed with COVID-19
        • He or she has symptoms of COVID-19 and is in the process of seeking a medical diagnosis
        • A household member has been diagnosed with COVID-19
        • He or she is providing care to a household member with COVID-19
        • A child or other person in the household for which the individual is the primary caregiver is unable to attend school or daycare due to COVID-19
        • The individual is unable to reach work due to a quarantine
        • The individual is unable to attend work because a healthcare professional advised him or her to self-quarantine

How are available benefits calculated?

Unemployed workers are typically entitled to an amount of unemployment benefits calculated as a percentage of the workers’ prior compensation. (These calculations vary by state.) Under the CARES Act, unemployed workers will continue to be eligible for such state-specific benefits plus an additional $600 per week for each week of unemployment.

It is presently unclear what documentation independent contractors will be required to submit to evidence their prior compensation for purposes of calculating benefit amounts. Unlike W-2 employees, contractors will not be able to provide paystubs evidencing their quarterly earnings

Forthcoming DOL guidance is expected regarding proper calculation of benefits for independent contractors and gig workers, and the documents necessary to support those calculations.

How long are benefits available?

Typically, state unemployment benefits expire after 26 weeks. The CARES Act extends this benefit period by 50 percent, permitting unemployed workers to collect benefits for up to 39 weeks.

However, the $600 additional weekly benefit is currently only available to workers unemployed during the eighteen-week period spanning March 30, 2020, to July 31, 2020.

Resources

10-Point Plan For Building A Safer Lennar Construction Site Flyer

10-Point Plan For Building A Safer Lennar Construction Site Flyer (Español)

COVID-19 Risk Level Scenarios Flyer

COVID-19 Safety Procedures For Construction Sites

How To Prevent Contracting Coronavirus Flyer

How To Prevent Contracting Coronavirus Flyer (Español)

Lennar Safety Officer Checklist for COVID-19

Lenanr Safety Officer Checklist for COVID-19 (Español)

Lennar Trade Partners Letter from The Lennar Division Presidents (April 2nd, 2020)

Lennar Trade Partners Letter from The Lennar Division Presidents (April 2nd, 2020) (Español)

Lennar Trade Partners Letter from The Lennar Executive Management Team (March 10th, 2020)

Lennar Trade Partners Letter from The Lennar Division Presidents (March 20th, 2020)

One Trade at a Time Social Distancing Signage

One Trade At A Time Social Distancing Signage (Español)

Stop The Spread Of Germs Flyer

Stop The Spread Of Germs Flyer (Español)

Contact

Please include your name, company name, and market location with your question.
We will respond to your questions as soon as possible, using all resources available to us, including our external advisors.

For those who have already sent in questions, thank you. We are working hard to respond to each. We expect to have them all answered by the end of day today or tomorrow.

This website is for informational purposes only and does not provide legal advice. Please do not act or refrain from acting based on anything you read on this site. If you have legal questions, you should consult an attorney. No website is entirely secure, so please be cautious information provided through the contact form or email. Do not assume confidentiality exists in anything you send through this website or email.