WBGZ Radio 2/7/2021 |
By Cole Lauterbach - Illinois Radio Network
Illinois businesses can accept their forgiven pandemic loans without worrying about paying federal taxes, but it s not yet clear if they ll owe the state.
In Illinois, 225,409 forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loans valued at approximately $22.85 billion were approved, according to the Small Business Administration. After the IRS decided that the forgiven loans were taxable as with other forgiven loans, Congress passed legislation in December making the change explicitly tax exempt.
Whether states, who also impose a tax on forgiven loans, will agree is a different matter.
“The question now becomes whether states are going to ensure that these aren’t taxed or is the allure of ‘free revenue’ going to be too much for states to resist,” said Morgan Scarboro, Manager of Tax Policy & Economist with Virginia-based government relations firm Multistate.