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.
Michael Johnson is executive vice president of supervision, regulation and credit at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
Raphael Bostic is the 15th president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
Ms. Washburn is a Managing Director at Municipal Market Analytics (MMA), an independent research and consulting group that publishes commentary on the US municipal bond market. Prior to MMA, Lisa was a managing director at Moody’s Investors Service where she managed several ratings teams and led various high profile projects, including the agency’s first municipal default study and the 2010 municipal rating recalibration.� Lisa is currently serving as the 2016 Chair of the National Federation of Municipal Analysts (NFMA) and has been on the Board of Governors and led many of the organization’s committees since 2008.�� She is also a member of the Municipal Analysts Group of New York (MAGNY).� She has an undergraduate degree in finance from Lehigh University and holds the designation of Certified Management Accountant.��
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.”