When the CARES Act was rolled out, all small businesses were invited to apply. Many types of businesses were qualified in the bill, and then in the CARES Act, including self-employed Independent Contractors, as well as Independent Contractors paid by businesses, which the law calls  "full-time equivalent employees."

     "Services," or a one-time job performed by a self-employed Independent Contractor to a non-affiliated business, are not covered, as far as covered payroll.

Later, during an update on guidance, the SAB FAQ #15 failed to include the word "services" when describing what are and are not allowable uses of payroll.  

     This omission of the word "services" was carried over into Questions H and P in the April 15, 2020 Interim Rule in the Federal Register.

     Lenders and the SBA are comprised of people. People inherently interpret what they think they are reading, rather than what they are actually reading. As such, Questions H and P have been thrown at us numerous times, in reference to why we are being denied forgiveness. However, this is a projection of what they think they are reading. They are interpreting Questions H and P to mean "full-time equivalent employee" Contractors, rather than services, although in reality, they say neither.

     We know the omission in SBA FAQ #15 and the Interim Rule Questions H and P are referring to services, because when we insert the word services, we are nowhere in conflict with the law. However, when we insert the words "Independent Contractors who are full-time equivalent employees of a business," we are in conflict with every body of legislation pertaining to the CARES Act. Therefore, we know it is with almost absolute certainly that the omission is of the word "services" and not "full-time equivalent employees."

     However, since Questions H and P fail to specify "services" or "full-time equivalent employees," it therefore does not say what it wants to say, and effectively says nothing.
Since these guidelines fail to specify anything, we cannot project onto them what we want them to say; we must ignore them.

When we leave those sentences out, the entire law and all legislation bodies of the CARES Act remain cohesive in that they qualify businesses which employ full-time equivalent Independent Contractors the entire way through.

You can listen to a verbal explanation here.

Those two sentences which fail to specify what they are referring to, are the two sentences that are wrongfully blocking billions of dollars of forgiveness to small businesses.