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.
Matt Waters, CPA, MBA, CGMA, has more than 15 years of experience managing accounting and finance. He has worked with both small organizations and large public companies including The Home Depot and American Tower. His expertise includes process improvements and software evaluation for the FASB’s new lease accounting guidance issued in February 2016.
While at Home Depot, he led the project to consolidate data for real estate, equipment and other leased assets into a single department, which increased efficiency for the preparation of financial reports, 10K footnotes, budgets and forecasts. Organizing lease data allowed the business to see patterns, eliminate waste, and make more informed decisions. Ultimately, his project enabled company-wide quality control over leased assets that reduced over-payments and other costs, which added money back to the bottom line.
Waters became a Certified Public Accountant in February 2004 and a Chartered Global Management Accountant in July 2012. He received his MBA from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Matthew Attwell is Risk & Client Services Director at The ai Corporation.
Joe Sturonas is chief technology officer at PKWARE.
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.