While most people know the CARES Act for providing direct stimulus payments and helping businesses meet payroll, the massive act contains much more.
Experts say the complexity and size can make it difficult for businesses to understand what they’re eligible for.
Matt Kuhn is a partner in the corporate group at Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath. He says the speed with which the act was passed was a necessary evil. It got money into the hands of people and businesses faster, but came with a cost.
“Anytime you take something that new and that massive, and move that quickly there’s inevitably going to be imperfections.”
At nearly 600 pages, the CARES Act includes provisions and restrictions for companies applying for funds. Businesses can draw from multiple programs with each carrying a different set of restrictions.
"There are so many different buckets of money, candidly, that what you need to do to qualify and what restrictions might be placed on your businesses really depend on what bucket of money under the CARES Act you might be falling under," Kuhn says.
Experts like Kuhn say litigation is likely to last years and will define more clearly the act’s limits.
