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.
Alex Malley is chief executive of CPA Australia, an accounting body in Australia, with over 160,000 members.
Patti Newcomer is vice president of marketing and analytics at Intuit’s ProConnect Group, responsible for ProConnect Tax Online, Lacerte, and ProSeries. Her leadership and extensive experience in product development, marketing strategy, and brand strategy guides Intuit’s national efforts with tax professionals.
Prior to leading Intuit ProConnect Marketing, Patti was chief marketing officer and senior vice president at WorldPay US, Inc.; vice president of marketing for Intuit Financial Services; senior vice president and marketing director of Card Business at Wachovia; and vice president of brand marketing at Capital One. She also served as a section head at Procter & Gamble for more than 10 years. Patti holds an MBA from the University of Cincinnati and a bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Rhiannon Stone is the chief operating officer at EPL.
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.”