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.
Ray Walsh leads InvoiceCloud's insurance vertical, helping property and casualty carriers modernize the way they bill, collect, and disburse payments to policyholders. He brings deep experience in enterprise SaaS sales and go-to-market leadership, having previously served as Vice President of Enterprise Sales at Brightcove and Senior Vice President of Global Sales at TransAct Technologies, where he led global sales strategy across restaurant and gaming solutions.
Robert Vane is the co-founder of the Q6FSA Method for Global Information Management, a freelance full enterprise scope data architect “with over 25 years experience of getting it all wrong, now dedicated to solving the foundational root causes of failure within the information management space and getting it all right.”
Kyle Schmitt is the managing director of J.D. Power’s Global Insurance Intelligence Group. He leads a team that develops and applies competitive intelligence from a combination of proprietary and multi-source data to help clients uncover opportunities, optimize operational investment initiatives and measure balanced project returns. Prior to joining J.D. Power, he spent more than 10 years advising US and international insurers on growth, market and M&A strategies. He most recently led growth and strategy for Life, Auto and P&C Claims business units at State Farm. Prior to State Farm, he was an Investment Banker based in London advising global life and P&C insurers on M&A and capital optimization. He is based in Chicago.
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.