SBA has rewritten its lending rulebook 17 times since Aug 2008. Most of those revisions changed nothing for a business buyer. These three did, and between them they decide how much cash you bring, whether the seller can carry part of it, and how much the business has to earn.
Each rule below is traced through every revision, with the value read out of the document that set it. Where a version states no rule, that is recorded as an absence rather than left blank: the gap is often the finding. The equity injection had no minimum at all for the first year of this history, and the seller-note rule is the only one that has moved in both directions.
The equity injection
How much of your own money must go in?
This is the cheque you write at closing, and the single number that decides whether a buyer can do a deal at all. The rule behind it has been rewritten twice.
Aug 2008 to Oct 2009SOP 5 to 5(A)Permissive
No minimum at all
Neither version sets a minimum injection for an acquisition. Both leave whether to require one to the lender, calling it a matter of business judgment. The change-of-ownership rules in these versions govern eligibility and use of proceeds instead: paying off seller debt to effect a change of ownership counts as buying a business rather than refinancing, and the seller cannot stay on as an associate.
left to the business judgment of the lender
Oct 2009 to Jan 2018SOP 5(B) to 5(I)Conditional
25% of the purchase price, but only sometimes
A 25% injection applies only where intangible assets exceed $500,000, and only to keep the application inside the lender's delegated authority. It was never a universal down payment, and a non-delegated submission avoided it. The base is the purchase price alone. Seller take-back financing on full standby counts as seller equity for this test.
an equity injection of at least 25% of the purchase price
Jan 2018 to Oct 2026SOP 5(J) to 8Strict
10% of total project cost, on every deal
The modern rule. It applies to every complete change of ownership, with no intangibles trigger and no delegated-authority escape. The base is larger than it looks: total project cost is every cost required to complete the change of ownership regardless of the source of funds, so it picks up fees, closing costs, and working capital in the request. SOP 8 carves out costs financed by lines of credit and 504 loans.
at least ten (10) percent of the total project costs
Oct 2026 onwardSOP 8.1Strict
Still 10%, but no longer waivable for first-time buyers
The percentage does not move on October 1, 2026. The lender's discretion does. Appendix 15 sets 10% for every category, then splits: for an Initial Acquisition, the default category for someone buying their first business, the injection cannot be reduced or eliminated. For Business Expansions and Owner Buyouts a lender may still reduce or eliminate it.
the required equity injection cannot be reduced or eliminated
Seller debt toward the injection
Can the seller's note count as your money?
The rule that has moved most, and the only one that moved in both directions. It decides whether a seller note pays you interest from year one or nothing until the SBA loan is gone.
Aug 2008 to Jan 2018SOP 5 to 5(I)Permissive
Not addressed as an injection rule
These versions carry no rule letting seller debt count toward a required injection, because until 50 10 5(J) there was no universal injection requirement for it to count against. Seller take-back financing on full standby is defined as seller equity, but only for the separate 25% intangibles test.
Jan 2018 to Aug 2023SOP 5(J) to 6Strict
Full standby for the life of the loan, capped at half
Seller debt counts only if it is on full standby for the entire life of the SBA loan, and it can cover no more than half the required injection. The other half has to be real money.
on full standby for the life of the SBA loan
Aug 2023 to Jun 2025SOP 7 to 7.1Permissive
Loosened to 24 months, and partial standby allowed
The most buyer-friendly this rule has ever been. Full standby was required for only the first 24 months of the 7(a) loan. Alternatively the note could sit on partial standby, paying interest only, where historical business cash flow supported the payments and at least a quarter of the required injection came from a source other than the seller. SOP 7.1 kept that structure and added that the seller note must carry no balloon payment.
It is on full standby for the first 24 months
Jun 2025 onwardSOP 8 to 8.1Strict
Reversed: full standby for the life of the loan again
SOP 8 undid the loosening and restored the original test: full standby for the life of the loan, capped at half the SBA-required injection. 8.1 states the standby definition as no payments of principal or interest for the term of the 7(a) loan, evidenced on SBA Form 155 or a lender equivalent. For roughly 22 months, between August 2023 and June 2025, a seller note paying interest from year one was financeable as equity. It is not now.
no payments of principal or interest for the term
The coverage floor
How much cash must the business throw off?
The test that decides whether a deal is financeable at the price you agreed. It sat still for a decade and moves for the first time on October 1, 2026.
Aug 2008 to Jan 2014SOP 5 to 5(E)Permissive
No numeric floor
These versions state no minimum coverage ratio for the applicant. Cash flow analysis is required, but the threshold is not a published number.
Jan 2014 to Jan 2018SOP 5(F) to 5(I)Conditional
1.15, historical or projected
The first published floor. Coverage must be at least 1.15, and it can be met on a historical or a projected cash flow basis, which means a forecast could carry a thin trailing year.
must be equal to or greater than 1.15
Jan 2018 to Oct 2026SOP 5(J) to 8Conditional
1.15, plus a new global test of 1 to 1
The business floor is unchanged, but a second test arrives: global coverage of at least 1 to 1, which counts the borrower's personal obligations alongside the business. It survives unchanged into 8.1.
1.15 on a historical and/or projected cash flow basis and 1:1 on a global basis
Oct 2026 onwardSOP 8.1Strict
1.25 for acquisitions, on historicals only
The general 1.15 and the global 1 to 1 survive in the main text. Appendix 15 then layers acquisition floors on top: 1.25 for an Initial Acquisition, Owner Buyout, and ESOP, and 1.15 for a Business Expansion. Projections may no longer carry the requirement, so the floor has to be met on historical or adjusted historical numbers. This is the first change to the coverage a buyer must clear since 2014.
may not rely on them to meet the DSC requirement
Every revision, and when it took effect
Dates are read from each document’s own front matter rather than its filename. That matters more than it sounds: 5(E) is effective June 2012 despite a file named for a 2013 reissue.
| Revision | Effective | Status |
|---|---|---|
| SOP 50 10 5 | August 1, 2008 | Superseded Mar 2009 |
| SOP 50 10 5(A) | March 1, 2009 | Superseded Oct 2009 |
| SOP 50 10 5(B) | October 1, 2009 | Superseded Oct 2010 |
| SOP 50 10 5(C) | October 1, 2010 | Superseded Oct 2011 |
| SOP 50 10 5(D) | October 1, 2011 | Superseded Jun 2012 |
| SOP 50 10 5(E) | June 1, 2012 | Superseded Jan 2014 |
| SOP 50 10 5(F) | January 1, 2014 | Superseded Oct 2014 |
| SOP 50 10 5(G) | October 1, 2014 | Superseded May 2015 |
| SOP 50 10 5(H) | May 1, 2015 | Superseded Jan 2017 |
| SOP 50 10 5(I) | January 1, 2017 | Superseded Jan 2018 |
| SOP 50 10 5(J) | January 1, 2018 | Superseded Apr 2019 |
| SOP 50 10 5(K) | April 1, 2019 | Superseded Oct 2020 |
| SOP 50 10 6 | October 1, 2020 | Superseded Aug 2023 |
| SOP 50 10 7 | August 1, 2023 | Superseded Nov 2023 |
| SOP 50 10 7.1 | November 15, 2023 | Superseded Jun 2025 |
| SOP 50 10 8 | June 1, 2025 | Superseded Oct 2026 |
| SOP 50 10 8.1 | October 1, 2026 | Not yet in force |
All 17 revisions of SOP 50 10, from the local document snapshots, as of August 17, 2026.
How this was built
Each document was extracted to plain text and searched for the governing passage of each provision. Values are read from the source text, never inferred. Effective dates come from each document's own front matter rather than its filename. An absence is recorded only where the version was read and found to state no rule, never from a failed search.
Change-of-ownership provisions as they bind a business buyer. Provisions not yet traced, including the business valuation threshold and the seller transition period, are absent rather than guessed. The three rules above are traced across all 17 revisions with no gaps. For the detail on what takes effect on October 1, 2026, including the quality-of-earnings requirement and the valuation ceiling that are new in 8.1, see the full breakdown of SOP 50 10 8.1.
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