Small businesses that manage to get their Paycheck Protection Program loans forgiven may find themselves losing valuable tax breaks, according to new guidance from the Internal Revenue Service.
Companies that qualify for loan forgiveness under legislation Congress approved won’t be able to deduct the wages or other businesses expenses they paid for using the loan, according to an IRS notice published Thursday.
“This treatment prevents a double tax benefit,” the agency said in the notice. “This conclusion is consistent with prior guidance of the IRS.”
The guidance clarifies a point of confusion in the $670 billion small business loan program to help businesses struggling as the coronavirus has brought the economy to a standstill. The law states that the forgiven loan won’t be taxed, but didn’t specify whether companies could still write off the expenses they covered with that money.
Andrew Coen is a Northeast Regional Reporter for The Bond Buyer. His major coverage has included New Jersey’s pension funding challenges, Atlantic City’s credit crisis and ambitious capital projects being undertaken by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. He also hosts Bond Buyer podcasts and videos.Previously, Coen was an associate digital editor in SourceMedia’s Investment Advisory Group comprised of Financial Planning, On Wall Street, Bank Investment Consultant and Money Management Executive. He was also reporter for Municipal Finance Today.Prior to arriving at SourceMedia in July 2013, Coen worked at AOL as an editor covering local news for Wantagh-Seaford Patch on Long Island. He also had reporting stints with Crain’s InvestmentNews, Institutional Investor News and Herald Community Newspapers.A Rhode Island native, Coen graduated from Hofstra University on Long Island in 2002 with a B.A. in Print Journalism and minor in History. He was also active in the university’s award-winning radio station, WRHU.
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Gary Tyreman brings more than 20 years of executive leadership to his role as the president and chief executive officer at Univa Corporation. As CEO, he leads all of Univa's global operations and is the architect of Univa's data center automation strategy, which combines the deep expertise of Grid Engine with Univa's solutions for optimizing and managing IT workloads including containers. Gary has established Univa as a recognized software provider to hundreds of Fortune 1000 companies in multiple industries. Prior to taking this role, Gary was SVP of products and alliances at Univa.
The tax code permits companies to write off businesses expenses, such as wages, rent and transportation expenses, but generally doesn’t allow write-offs for tax-exempt income.
The ruling adds to the list of stumbling blocks facing businesses as they try to qualify for the Paycheck Protection Program loans.
Small businesses have reported technical issues in trying to apply for the funds, which restarted Monday after the first round of funding ran out after just 13 days.
The program, run by the Small Business Administration, provides funds to cover eight weeks of payroll costs and the loans are forgiven if the employers keep workers on the job or quickly rehire laid-off workers.