Essintial Enterprise Solutions, LLC v. Small Business Administration, et al.

The Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) defines “payroll costs” to include “the sum of payments of any compensation to or income of a sole proprietor or independent contractor that is a wage, commission, income, net earnings from self-employment, or similar compensation.” Petitioner applied for a PPP loan after the government’s own authorized lender expressly advised that independent contractors “are allowed to be included in payroll costs”; thereafter, when federal guidance suggested that independent contractors would not qualify for loan forgiveness, petitioner—out of an abundance of caution—exclusively spent its loan proceeds on employee wages and other statutorily authorized costs. The SBA denied eligibility even though at the time of application the SBA’s own agent was clear independent contractors should be included in the calculation loan forgiveness anyway. The question presented is whether the statutory definition of “payroll costs” includes payments to independent contractors.