Hi all,

I'm wondering how to deal with my bank on this one as I apply for forgiveness. I am an independent contractor and receive 1099s. In the spring I applied for PPP funds as I was encouraged to do as the nature of my business (Managing athletic events for Universities and schools) was completely shut down by the pandemic.

I don't have an official business account at my bank. Since I am a one man show I just deposit my pay into my personal checking and that is that. The PPP money was also directly deposited into my personal checking account. I understand that I should probably open a business account but hindsight is 20/20 and thats not going to solve this problem now.

Now a person from the bank has contacted me after I applied for forgiveness and I have found myself in a bit of an ongoing argument with him. I don't think he understands what self-employed means or how independent contractors work. He wants me to show payroll records, which obviously I don't have since I am not paying anyone but myself. So he says that what I should have been doing is writing checks to myself during the covered period and cashing them. Then I could show the canceled checks as payroll. To me this makes absolutely NO sense and no one ever told me that is what I should have been doing. He told me what I could also do is send him my bank statements and highlights things I used the PPP funds for. This also doesn't make sense to me and nothing I have read online leads me to believe this is what I should do. He told me to highlight things like living expenses, groceries, car insurance etc. I don't have anything to be embarrassed of on my bank statement but I still feel weird having them go through it and basically judging what I spent money on.

From what I understand I am applying for Owner Relief compensation and none of what he is asking for should be required. Am I wrong?

What should I do?

Thank you!