The Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) is a $40,000 loan (additional 20,000 loan will be available soon) to help businesses pay their non-deferrable expenses during this challenging period. The CEBA has two streams of eligibility: the Payroll stream and the Non-Deferrable Expense stream. These loans are government-funded, interest-free and provided through financial institutions in cooperation with Export Development Canada (EDC). Read more below to see if your eligible and how you are able to keep 10,000-20,000 out of the loan.
Is my business eligible for CEBA and CEBA+?
To determine if your business is eligible for CEBA, you must first assess if your business meets all the basic eligibility requirements below. Then you will have to determine if your business is eligible for either (1) the Payroll Stream OR (2) the Non-Deferrable Expense Stream. You must meet all the basic CEBA eligibility requirements:
You have an active CRA Business Number (BN) with an effective date of registration on or prior to March 1, 2020.
You have an active business chequing/operating account with your primary financial institution. If you currently don’t have a business chequing/operating account, you must create one at your financial institution before applying for CEBA.
You have not previously used CEBA and will not apply for CEBA at any other financial institution
You intend to continue to operate your business or to resume operations
You are willing to participate in post-funding surveys conducted by government or any of its agents
Payroll stream eligibility:
You must have a total employment income paid in the 2019 calendar year between $20,000 and $1.5 million (found on your T4 Sum).
Non-deferrable expense stream eligibility
You must have eligible non-deferrable expenses for the year of 2020 totalling between $40,000 and $1,500,000. For more details on what is an eligible non-deferrable expense, see below.
You must have filed an income tax return with the CRA for the tax year ending in 2019, or if your tax return for 2019 has not yet been submitted, 2018.
Note: if your business did not have any returns to file with CRA in 2018 or 2019, you can still file your returns with zero or “nil” owed online in your CRA My Business Account portal.
CEBA+ eligibility requirements:
The details of this program have yet to be legislated. That said, our conversations with government have led us to the following conclusions: Before you can apply to CEBA+ for the $20K interest-free loan, you must first have received the $40K interest-free CEBA loan. You will have to sign a self-attestation of having experienced a revenue drop due to COVID-19
CEBA+ will also be administered through your financial institution.
Government sources
questions about your eligibility or help with applying for ceba?
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