On Wednesday, July 19, 2023, the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) published a final rule permanently adopting a 13.65 percent (13.65%) increase in the monetary-based size standards for SBA small business programs. The SBA had previously issued interim rules on November 17, 2022, that implemented these increases to address extraordinary inflation that had occurred since 2019. This final rule finalizes that interim action and makes the increase permanent.
In addition to increasing all monetary-based size standards by 13.65%, the final rule also makes permanent the SBA’s interim increases to the size standards for sales or leases of government property (increased from $8 million to $9 million in average annual receipts), stockpile purchases (increased from $67.5 million to $76.5 million in average annual receipts), and the alternative size standard based on tangible net worth and net income for the Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) program (tangible net worth limit increased from $19.5 million to $24 million and net income from $6.5 million to $8 million).
Finally, the SBA also made permanent increases to the economic disadvantage thresholds for the SBA’s 8(a) and Economically Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Business (EDWOSB) programs:
