Press Releases

Rep. French Hill (AR-02) wrote a letter to U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator Isabella Guzman after hearing from several small business owners in Central Arkansas who have received denial letters from the SBA for their Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) applications due to “unverifiable information.”

In the letter, Rep. Hill references a recent conversation with the Arkansas SBA. It was indicated to Rep. Hill that there’s a disconnect between the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the SBA in determining the correct documents needed for business owners to receive the EIDL.

Furthermore, the IRS is delayed in providing IRS Form 4506-T to the SBA. This form, filled out by the applying business owner, is submitted to the IRS to request a transcript of the business’ tax return. This tax return is sent directly to the SBA. Unfortunately, the severe disconnect between the IRS and SBA disrupts the entire EIDL application process, at the expense of applying small business owners who are getting their EIDL application denied at no fault of their own.

Rep. Hill concludes, “For more than 18 months businesses across the country have been hurt by the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is important now, more than ever, that those businesses qualify for financial relief from programs like EIDL, get the proper attention they deserve. I implore you to work with the IRS to ensure this miscommunication gets resolved so Arkansas’s small businesses can benefit from SBA’s EIDL program.”