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Can I go to jail for not paying a merchant cash advance?
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No. You cannot go to jail for failing to pay a merchant cash advance. Merchant cash advance debt is a civil business obligation, not a crime, and the United States does not have debtors' prisons. The consequences of non-payment are civil — lawsuits, judgments, account restraints, and liens — never incarceration.
The only exception is actual fraud
The only way criminal exposure enters the picture is in rare cases involving actual fraud — for example, knowingly falsifying revenue or bank statements to obtain funding. Ordinary inability to pay is never criminal. If you borrowed in good faith and simply can't keep up, this is a contract dispute, full stop.
What you should actually worry about
The real risks are financial and civil: a default judgment, a frozen business bank account, and UCC liens that block new financing. Those are avoidable or resolvable — most often by settling the balance before a judgment is entered, which removes the funder's strongest tools.