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.
Emma Bienias is managing director of Stout, a global advisory firm specializing in corporate finance, accounting and transaction advisory, valuation, financial disputes, claims, and investigations. She has a background in performing valuation engagements for various purposes including financial reporting, tax valuations, business reorganizations, pre-acquisition diligence, post-acquisition disputes, fairness and solvency opinions and other management planning and corporate-related matters. Emma has experience providing expert litigation support for analyses of economic damages resulting from the infringement or misappropriation of intellectual property rights. She has performed damage analyses that included consideration of unjust enrichment, loss profits, and reasonable royalty. Emma also combines financial, market and competitive information to value intellectual property for a variety of objectives such as regulatory compliance, licensing and sale transactions, and securing financing for corporate acquisitions and expansion.
Alessio Alionço is the founder and CEO of Pipefy, a leading process management and AI platform. Brazilian-born Alionco is a high-impact global leader and has grown Pipefy from its founding in 2015 to a company with hundreds of customers worldwide. Pipefy delivers a business process automation platform that improves productivity and efficiency, centralizes data, and standardizes processes for teams in insurance.
Amy is the chief people officer for Lucet. She leads a team of HR professionals and provides business partnerships to drive people strategy, talent acquisition and management, learning and engagement, and total rewards. She is also an executive sponsor of the Lucet Impact & Responsibility Council.
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.