PPP Loans: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
As you likely know by now, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan and its forgiveness process have been an ever-changing (and often confusing) ride so far.
With the new rules for PPP loans of $50,000 or less, you escape the most difficult part of the loan forgiveness if you had to consider employees. And you may even obtain more loan forgiveness than you would have otherwise.
Before the $50,000-or-less rule, you had to either suffer a reduction in loan forgiveness or meet one of the many exceptions that allowed you to
Now, with a PPP loan of $50,000 or less, you don’t have to consider the myriad rules about employees.
Regardless of what you did with your employees, you qualify for full forgiveness if
Example. You obtain a PPP loan of $34,000 based on your 2019 Schedule C income and pay to your part-time employee. When COVID-19 hit, you laid off your part-time worker and have not rehired him. Using SBA Form 3508S and the 24-week covered period, you qualify for 100 percent forgiveness of your $34,000 loan because you paid $20,833 (61 percent) of the deemed payroll to yourself and the remainder on five months’ rent and utilities.
Planning note. You are not an employee of your Schedule C business. You receive no W-2 income. But the PPP rules deem your 2019 Schedule C profits as your payroll for PPP loan purposes. The rules cap the Schedule C taxpayer’s loan amount and forgiveness at a maximum of $20,833 when Schedule C income is $100,000 or more.
From what we know, when lawmakers originally passed the PPP they thought that under its provisions,
In late April, the IRS issued Notice 2020-32, which asserts that PPP loan recipients may not deduct business expenses paid using the PPP monies that gave rise to forgiveness (defined payroll, rent, utilities, and interest).
In a letter to Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin on May 5, 2020, Senator Chuck Grassley (chairman of the Committee on Finance), Senator Ron Wyden (ranking member on the Committee on Finance), and Congressman Richard E. Neal (chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means) jointly stated that the IRS got this wrong and that the intent of the CARES Act was for the PPP to be a tax-free grant.
The IRS was unmoved by the lawmakers’ letter. The IRS position was clear: no deduction for the expenses paid with the PPP money. The IRS understood that perhaps lawmakers didn’t mean that to happen, but in the eyes of the IRS, the way that the lawmakers enacted the law created the problem. To fix it, lawmakers simply need to pass a new law.
Frankly, we thought that lawmakers would pass a new law and take care of this problem. But no, that has not happened.
On November 18, 2020, the IRS drove two new nails into the coffin regarding deductions for PPP monies that were forgiven and spent on payroll, rent, interest, or utilities.
With the rulings described above, the IRS has clarified its position to lawmakers: if you don’t like the non-deductibility of expenses paid with PPP monies, change the law.
Join with hundreds of thousands of business taxpayers and tax professionals who are urging lawmakers to fix the non-deductibility issue.
To help encourage the action you desire (whether you’re for or against deductibility), get in touch with the lawmakers.
Your yea or nay doesn’t need to be long or formal. You can fax, email, or phone and simply say you support or oppose the bill. It’s that easy—and it’s effective. Do it.