Need remains for SBA loan help - bizjournals:

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On June 15, the SBA began accepting applications for emergency bridge loans of up to Small businesses can use these loans, which were created by the economiv stimulus bill, to make up to six monthw of payments on existing debt. They won’t have to start repayin g the loans until a year after thelast disbursement. The SBA will subsidizwe the interest onthese loans, which will be offerer through private-sector lenders.
The stimulus bill also temporarilhy reduced or eliminated fees onthe SBA’e regular 7(a) and 504 business and increased the government guarantee on 7(a) loans to 90 Weekly loan volume for the SBA’es 7(a) and 504 programs has increaseds by more than 30 percent since thes changes were implemented March 16. This increasew in SBA lending is “a positive and welcomede sign, but we have a very long way to go before SBA lendingh reaches solidlevels again,” said Cynthia vice chairman and chief operating officee of Bank of the West in Grapevine, Texas.
Blankenshi told the House Small Business Committee June 10 that Congrese should extend the fee reductions beyond 2009 or make them given the depth of the recession and the credi t crisis facingsmall businesses. Meanwhile, fees on the SBA’zs 504 loans, which finance real estate projects and othefrfixed assets, are scheduled to increase significantly in October. This will negatee the fee reductions adopted in March through the stimulus bill, said Jean Wojtowicz, executive directod of the Indiana Statewide CDC, a nonprofit economic development organizationb that makes 504 loans.
This fee increase is unnecessaryt because the SBA has overestimated the numbe r of 504 loans thatwill default, said who chairs the board of directors for the . She contend banks have become far more conservativwe in their underwriting duringthis “and only the strongest small businessews are now qualifying for new loans.” Unless Congresws appropriates money to offset the fee increases planned for 2010 and almost 20,000 small businesses will pay millions more dollars in fees than they shouldf over the 20 years of theif 504 loans, Wojtowicz said.
Meanwhile, David Bofill, ownee of two boat dealerships on Long praisedthe SBA’s recent decision to let vehicler and boat dealers use 7(a) loans to finance their at least through Sept. 30, 2010. Most lendersa have stopped makingthese so-called “floorplan” forcing many dealers to close their doors, Bofillo said. The new SBA prograkm can be “a critical lifeline, but problems Bofill said. The SBA needs to “make the program permanent and doit quickly.” “It will be very difficulr to attract a lender to develop a floorplanj program when the program is only slatee to last a Bofill said.
The size of these liness of credit must be expandedbeyond $2 because most small boat dealerzs have inventory worth much more than Residents of states that don’t have a sales tax will be eligiblde for a tax break on new vehicle purchases this year. The economic stimulusz bill allows taxpayers who buy a new vehiclw in 2009 to deduct statwe and local sales taxes or excise taxes paid on the purchasse from theirtaxable income.
The announced June 10 that it will allowa taxpayers who live in statesthat don’r have a sales tax to deducft other taxes or fees imposed by state and local governments on the To qualify, the taxed or fees must be based on the vehicle’w sale price or as a per-unitf fee. “This means that more people can take advantagr of this deduction when they file their tax returnsnext year,” said IRS Commissionert Doug Shulman. New vehicles purchased after Feb. 16, and before Jan. 1, 2010, are eligible for this tax The deduction is limited to fees or taxe s paid on upto $49,500 of the pricwe of a new car, light motor home or motorcycle.
The amount of the deduction phasesa outfor higher-income taxpayers.