Andy Grewal, of University of Iowa – College of Law, has made available for download his article, “Section 265 Disallowance and the PPP Expense Nightmare,” published in The Tax Lawyer, Volume 75 (Forthcoming 2021). The abstract is as followed:
Through the CARES Act, Congress established a generous Paycheck Protection Program. Under that program, recipients would get loans which could easily qualify for tax-free forgiveness. As an added bonus, taxpayers would enjoy tax deductions when they spent the amounts they borrowed.
Or so it seemed. After the CARES Act passed, the IRS promptly issued a notice denying deductions for PPP expenses. Secretary Treasury Steven Mnuchin personally reviewed the matter and announced that the IRS’s position followed from “Tax 101.” Congress eventually stepped in and offered a narrow statutory clarification: PPP expenses would be deductible.
Unfortunately, Congress did not go far enough. The IRS, with the blessing of some courts, has long used an aggressive interpretation of Section 265(a) to deny deductions allegedly allocable to tax-exempt income.
This Article explains the conceptual problems with the IRS’s approach and argues that it should be abandoned. The Article also explains why Congress should remedy the IRS’s error and explores alternative anti-abuse rules.
To see the full article, click: “Section 265 Disallowance and the PPP Expense Nightmare” by Andy Grewal.
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