The National Conference of CPA Practitioners urges Congress to automatically forgive small loans under the Paycheck Protection Program and ensure that business expenses paid with canceled PPP funds are deductible.

In a letter addressed to the senses. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Reps. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, and Richard Neal, D-Mass., The group suggested that all PPP loans below $150,000 should be automatically forgiven.

The letter, co-authored by NCCPAP Chairman Neil Fishman and its Tax Policy Committee Co-Chairs Stephen Mankowski and Sanford Zinman, noted that companies with loans of this size were small, had often been the largest. hard hit by the pandemic, and may not be able to afford professional help to complete complicated pardon applications.

“We have spoken with many of these business owners and they are intimidated by just glancing at the current pardon application,” they wrote. “It would expose them to miscalculation of the amount of pardon to which they would be entitled.”

“Additionally, as CPA professionals, we have regular conversations with bank management,” they continued. “They suggested they just don’t have the capacity to properly review the deluge of pardon requests they will be receiving. If all amounts under $150,000 were to be automatically waived, they would have a better opportunity. to properly review and review larger PPP program loans that have been issued.

NCCPAP also expressed support for S.3612, the Small Business Protection Act of 2020, a bill introduced by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, that would specify that business expenses paid with PPP funds that are forgiven are deductible.

The IRS has interpreted a section of the CARES Act that created the PPP that states that any loans received under the program and canceled “shall be excluded from gross income” to mean that business expenses paid with those funds must be excluded from business deductions for income tax purposes.

“This decision is in direct contrast to Congressional intent,” NCCPAP wrote, and urged Congress to pass Section 3612 or incorporate a similar provision into future legislation.