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.
Anthony Hall is office managing shareholder of Littler Mendelson’s Orlando office.
Jason Tan is CEO of Sift Science.
Lynnette Kelly has been the Executive Director of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) since June 2007.� Ms. Kelly leads the day-to-day management of the MSRB, a self-regulatory organization whose mission is to protect investors, municipal entities, and ensure a fair and efficient municipal securities market.� It does so by developing rules for municipal advisors who advise on issuance, securities firms and banks that underwrite, trade and sell municipal bonds, and by operating information systems, including the Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA) system, designed to promote transparency and investor access to information.� The MSRB also serves as an objective and expert resource and repository of municipal market information.Previously, Ms. Kelly was a managing director and associate general counsel at�the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) (formerly The Bond Market Association), where she helped develop and implement legal, regulatory and best market practices in the fixed income markets, with a focus on municipal finance.�From 1990 to 1993, Ms. Kelly served as general counsel for the Municipal Assistance Corporation for the City of New York, and has worked at several law firms in New York City in all areas of municipal finance.�She graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1981 and from Tulane University School of Law in 1984.
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.”