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.
Dimitri Dadiomov is co-founder and CEO of Modern Treasury, which builds payments operation platforms for financial services companies.
Date: Tuesday, April 22, 2025
Scott Engelbrecht is the chief development officer for CLA. For more than 30 years, he has dedicated his career to providing business and financial solutions to the firm's clients through its business lines: audit, tax, consulting, outsourcing and wealth advisory. In his current role as chief development officer, he is not only focusing on the firm's organic client growth but also driving forward greenfield opportunities, including opening new CLA locations and bringing other firms across the U.S. into the CLA family. He supports the development and management of the firm's financial reporting systems, and he coordinates across CLA to develop and manage appropriate measuring and reporting approaches required to accomplish the needs of the firm. Engelbrecht is also responsible for helping the firm reach stated financial goals for service lines, industry groups and geographic regions. As chief development officer, he leads and coordinates the overall facility management requirements of the firm and is responsible for coordinating a consistent approach operationally and financially regarding all lease, merger/acquisition and principal-related agreements.
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.”