UPDATE 5/5/21: THE SBA HAS CLOSED PPP APPLICATIONS. Those who have already submitted applications will be considered for the remaining funding.

YES! SELF-EMPLOYED ARTISTS CAN QUALIFY!

If you have already received a first draw PPP, you should check if you qualify to apply for a second draw PPP before the funds run out. Read more details below.
There are still PPP funds available, but they will likely run out by early May despite the official May 31 deadline, so act fast!

ORIGINAL ANNOUNCEMENT OF PPP FOR ARTISTS/CREATIVES

Attention all you self-employed "Schedule C" filers:

The Small Business Administration just made it a lot easier for people who file a Schedule C on their federal taxes to qualify for COVID-19 business relief (the "PPP” program), and Assets for Artists wants to be sure folks in our artist-network are checking it out. Many more artists will now qualify!

These are “forgivable loans” for small businesses, including people who are self-employed, as long as they filed a Schedule C in 2019 or 2020 and earned "Gross Income” (line 7 of the Schedule C). The program was designed so that nearly all businesses will be granted 100% forgiveness (effectively turning the loans into grants) as long as the funds are used for eligible expenses, which shouldn’t be a problem for the vast majority of self-employed folks.

If you're wondering whether this program might apply to you, here are some things to consider:

Are you currently receiving Pandemic Unemployment Assistance? If so, there’s a decent probability that the PPP is NOT a good fit for you unless the “Gross Income” you earned on your Schedule C in 2019 was more than about $25,000. (A PPP loan could result in reducing or eliminating your unemployment for the period of the loan, which is an important consideration.)
Did you receive a previous round of PPP funding in 2020? If so, that doesn’t necessarily disqualify you, but for a “second draw” of forgivable PPP funds you would have to document that your business suffered losses of at least 25% for at least one quarter during 2020 compared to the same quarter in 2019. If you are considering a first-time PPP loan, then the 25% loss criteria does not apply to you.
How much was your "Gross Income" on your federal Schedule C (Profit or Loss from a Business, Line 7) on your 2019 or 2020 personal tax return? If you had a Gross Income of at least $5,000 in 2019 or 2020, then you may be a good candidate for a helpful amount of PPP small business relief. Note that you do NOT have to pay yourself, or anyone else, on a formal "payroll" to qualify for this Payroll Protection Program (you just have to have filed a Schedule C), and with the Biden Administration's recent changes to the application process for self-employed Schedule C filers, you don't even need to have a "Net Profit" on line 31. The SBA's new process means that you can now qualify for loans of 20.83% of your Gross Income, with loans capped at $20,833 for sole proprietors without employees.
If you have a 2019 Schedule C with at least $5,000 of Gross Income, it's pretty straightforward to submit an application for PPP small business relief. The amount of your PPP "loan" will be automatically calculated based on your gross income.
Most self-employed people will simply be using the PPP money to pay themselves and replace the "owner compensation" that they would "normally" have been able to earn from business activities without this crisis. So it’s not hard to document that you’re using the money for eligible expenses, and you don’t have to worry about whether your business or household income in 2021 is going to be higher or lower than it was in 2020 or 2019. That’s not a factor for eligibility, and it doesn’t affect whether the loan is forgivable.
As alluded to above, it’s important to remember that if you're qualifying for unemployment compensation during the pandemic, this PPP relief would likely reduce or eliminate your unemployment for the period of time covered by the PPP. If your Schedule C Gross Income was fairly low in 2019 and if it has largely dried up during the crisis, then unemployment benefits will probably work out better for you. But for people who don't qualify for unemployment because of their current earnings, or for people who made more than about $25,000 of Gross Income on their Schedule C in 2019 or 2020, or for any small nonprofit that has a payroll, the PPP could be a great help.
The application for PPP funding has to go through a bank or online lender. Many community banks have been great partners for receiving these funds, and various online lenders have set up step-by-step systems to streamline the application process. The current deadline to apply is May 31, although the money is being awarded first-come-first-serve and is likely to run out before May 31st. It looks like there should be enough money to last until early May, but it doesn’t hurt to move quickly to be safe.
If you’re applying for a PPP, it’s recommended that you open a separate bank account where the PPP money can go, and then you would transfer funds from that account to your personal account to show that you’re using the funds for owner compensation at the approved amounts.

This may sound like a lot of paperwork and hassle, and it's true that you DO have to be willing to wade through some numbers and file various forms to be able to qualify for the loan and for forgiveness, but it’s easier than you might expect (easy enough for most people to do it without an accountant), and it could be a significant amount of money depending on your Gross Income from your creative business.

If you’re based in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, or Connecticut, A4A’s Blair Benjamin is available to help you think it through if you're confused about whether you're likely to qualify for either a first or second draw forgivable loan, and how to submit an application. Just go to this link to let us know that you’re interested in getting some one-on-one coaching from Blair about the PPP program, and he’ll get back to you as quickly as possible.