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.
Joel is Senior Director, P&C Demand for MediaAlpha, the leading customer acquisition platform in the insurance industry. In this role, Joel leads the client-facing team that works with P&C advertisers to profitably acquire customers at scale, ensuring campaigns are highly efficient and meet client objectives.
Prior to joining MediaAlpha, Joel spent six years with Liberty Mutual, most recently as Senior Director, Marketing. Joel holds an MBA and an MS in Information Systems from Boston University.
John Mackowiak is chief business development officer at Advyzon, a cloud-based platform that combines portfolio management, customizable performance reporting, trading and rebalancing, client web portals, client relationship management (CRM), client billing, and document storage.
John leads the sales and service effort and contributes to development of the Advyzon platform. Prior to working at Advyzon, he spent 12 years at Morningstar, most recently as product manager for Morningstar Office.
Ben Siewert joined International Planning Alliance in November 2019 after a 12-year career as an audit and accounting professional with KPMG, The Siegfried Group and JP Morgan Chase. He holds his CPA as well as his Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Penn State University.
Siewert focuses his practice on working with families, as well as fellow mid-career professionals. He enjoys explaining financial concepts and decisions to his clients using the athletic principles he has learned over the course of 30 years as an amateur athlete. Every athlete works with a coach to enhance their strengths and improve their weaknesses — finances deserve the same care.
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.