The top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee said the Treasury Department “missed the mark” in new guidance that limits tax breaks for businesses that get their Paycheck Protection Program loans forgiven.
In a joint statement Thursday, Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley and Democrat Ron Wyden said the Treasury is depriving some small businesses of much-needed economic relief by forcing them to choose between getting their PPP loans forgiven or claiming write-offs on expenses they covered with the loan money. The IRS published guidance on the issue Wednesday.
“Regrettably, Treasury has now doubled down on its position in new guidance that increases the tax burden on small businesses by accelerating their tax liability, all at a time when many businesses continue to struggle and some are again beginning to close,” Grassley and Wyden said.
The congressional reaction to the guidance puts additional pressure on the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service to allow taxpayers to claim the expense deductions. Grassley and Wyden encouraged the IRS to reverse its position.
The lawmakers said they are working to include language in year-end legislation clarifying that taxpayers qualify for expense deductions even if their loans are forgiven. That could be included in government spending legislation that Congress must pass by Dec. 11 before federal funding runs out.
Chris Moran, a tax attorney for law firm Venable LLP, said, “the IRS guidance seems to be inconsistent with congressional intent” in the CARES Act, which created PPP loans for businesses struggling from the pandemic. The law stated 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.
Germaine Cota, CPA, is senior vice president of finance & accounting at BILL.
Jacob T. Crowley, CPA, is an assistant professor of accounting at the James F. Dicke College of Business Administration of Ohio Northern University. Prior to joining the faculty at ONU, he was an auditor in the Deloitte Cleveland office focusing on manufacturing and landscaping services. He teaches principles of accounting, intermediate financial accounting, auditing, accounting information systems, and is the capstone program coordinator at ONU. He performs research on audit quality, accounting pedagogy, and NCAA college athletics. He is a certified public accountant in the state of Ohio and a member of the board of directors of the North American Accounting Society.
Ashley Monaco is a professional assistant professor of accounting at Walsh University. She holds CPA and CFE licenses, as well as a master's degree in forensic accounting from Ohio Northern University. Before joining the university, she worked as an auditor for a midsized firm. She also serves as the advisor for the university's accounting club and is actively involved in fostering connections between academia and industry.
Excluding the forgiven loan from tax “is essentially meaningless if the expenses funded by the loan are nondeductible,” Moran said.
Still, many taxpayers aren’t expecting to get permission to claim the deductions, from the IRS or Congress, in the short term.
“I think most of them are, at least for now, resigned” to not getting the write-offs, Joe Kristan, a partner at the accounting firm Eide Bailly LLP in Des Moines, Iowa. “They’d certainly like to be allowed by Congress to step in and allow their deductions, but they’re not counting on it.”