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.
Yerbol Orynbayev is an independent financial services consultant and former deputy prime minister of Kazakhstan, now based in Washington D.C. He advises leading financial services and technology companies and has held a number of senior positions in private financial, research and technology companies. Prior to his consultancy career, Orynbayev served as the deputy prime minister from 2007-2013 and aide to the president on economic policy from 2013-2015. He also worked as Kazakhstan's governor of the World Bank and helped to steer the nation out of the financial crisis in 2008. He was chairman of First Heartland Securities and held a number of board-level roles at the National Bank of Kazakhstan and Agency for Regulations of Financial Markets.
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.