Small businesses that manage to get their Paycheck Protection Program loans forgiven may find themselves losing valuable tax breaks, according to new guidance from the Internal Revenue Service.
Companies that qualify for loan forgiveness under legislation Congress approved won’t be able to deduct the wages or other businesses expenses they paid for using the loan, according to an IRS notice published Thursday.
“This treatment prevents a double tax benefit,” the agency said in the notice. “This conclusion is consistent with prior guidance of the IRS.”
The guidance clarifies a point of confusion in the $670 billion small business loan program to help businesses struggling as the coronavirus has brought the economy to a standstill. The law states 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.
Kiley Lambert is a veteran content strategist and producer who leads editorial efforts across several American Banker live media programs. Prior to joining Arizent, he worked as a coordinating producer at CNBC Events and was an original member of the Bloomberg Live editorial team, where he was instrumental in launching several of the group's top event franchises. A graduate of Columbia University's School of General Studies, Lambert began his career in film and television, before landing his first events job as a producer of the annual PopTech Conference in Camden, Maine.
George Nichkov is the CEO and co-founder of Taxnova, a platform that helps tech companies automate their R&D tax credit with AI. Before Taxnova, he was a product lead at Gett, where he built and launched B2B products including a corporate portal, APIs and carpooling. He began his career in strategy consulting at Oliver Wyman, and has since worked across product, AI and entrepreneurship.
The tax code permits companies to write off businesses expenses, such as wages, rent and transportation expenses, but generally doesn’t allow write-offs for tax-exempt income.
The ruling adds to the list of stumbling blocks facing businesses as they try to qualify for the Paycheck Protection Program loans.
Small businesses have reported technical issues in trying to apply for the funds, which restarted Monday after the first round of funding ran out after just 13 days.
The program, run by the Small Business Administration, provides funds to cover eight weeks of payroll costs and the loans are forgiven if the employers keep workers on the job or quickly rehire laid-off workers.