What You Need To Know About Your CEBA Loan Moving Forward

As of March 28, 2024, CEBA loan refinancing is closed. Any businesses with outstanding CEBA loans are required to pay them off in full by December 31, 2026.

Update and Recommendations from CFIB President Dan Kelly 

The deadline to keep the forgivable portion of the loan was January 18th, 2024.  

If you applied for a refinancing loan on or before January 18th, 2024, with the Financial Institution (FI) that provided your CEBA, you qualified for a special extension to March 28, 2024, to keep the forgivable portion. This means that all opportunities to keep the forgivable portion of the loan have now passed.

Here are some important details on how this extension worked:

1. There is no standard documentation requirement to prove you applied for refinancing on or before January 18, 2024. The federal government is allowing each bank to determine its own process so check with yours.
2. While you needed to apply for a refinancing loan with the bank that issued your CEBA loan to qualify for an extension, you did not need to take that loan and were permitted to find alternative sources of funding before the March 28, 2024, deadline.
3. If you were rejected for refinancing or denied the opportunity to apply for refinancing from your CEBA bank, you still qualified for the extension to March 28, 2024, as long as your account was in good standing and your FI confirmed your access to the March 28th deadline. 
4. Ensure you receive any decisions from your bank in writing so you can demonstrate that you applied for financing on or before January 18.
5. During this special extension period, starting January 19, 2024, 5% interest will be charged on the outstanding amount of your CEBA including the forgivable portion.  

If you didn’t have the capacity to repay or borrow to repay your loan, consider how you will repay the larger amount on or before December 31, 2026: If you didn’t receive the extension to March 28, 2024 from your bank, you have lost the forgivable portion, but your CEBA will convert to a term loan with a that can be repaid over 3 years (to the end of 2026). In addition, businesses will only be required to pay monthly 5% interest payments on the full outstanding balance of your CEBA (including the forgivable portion) and can pay the principal amount just before the term loan repayment deadline of December 31, 2026. 

If your business has been deemed ineligible for CEBA, you do not qualify for the extension to January 18, 2024. Over 50,000 small businesses that received and spent CEBA loans during the pandemic have now been deemed ineligible for the loan in the first place. If deemed ineligible, the business does not benefit from the forgivable portion nor do they qualify for the extensions to January 18 or March 28, 2024. CFIB regards this as deeply unfair, especially as government has closed the process that allowed businesses to have their file reviewed or reconsidered. CFIB continues to advocate government for an extra year and a process to review files with minor errors to protect the forgivable portion. If your business was deemed ineligible:  

• Your deadline to repay the loan in full was December 31, 2023.  
• Starting January 19, 2024, you will be charged 5% interest on the full outstanding amount of your CEBA including the forgivable portion. 
• The Canada Revenue Agency will begin contacting ineligible businesses in the spring of 2024 to collect from those who haven’t repaid.  
• Government will assess repayment arrangements on a case-by-case basis. They have shared that there will be:
  • no penalties, and
  • based on your ability to repay, could offer repayment flexibilities of up to a 2-year repayment period.  
• If you are unsure as to why you are ineligible, please call the CEBA call centre at 1-888-324-4201 and your Financial Institution to get clarity. If you have a situation that you would like CFIB to highlight in our advocacy, please send us an email at CEBA@cfib.ca. 

If you need help, get in touch with us: CFIB Advisors are available to help you work through your options when it comes to paying off your CEBA loan and can provide guidance on many other issues. Give us a call at 1-833-568-2342 or reach out to us by e-mail cfib@cfib.ca.