Small Business Virtual Tax Roundtable – December 4, 2020

SBA Office of Advocacy Small Business Virtual Tax Roundtable

Friday, December 4, 2020

10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Via Microsoft Teams

Please RSVP to charles.jeane@sba.gov. A meeting link will be provided then.

Agenda*

I. Welcome and Introduction of Small Business Representatives (10:00 a.m. – 10:10 a.m.)

Charles Jeane, Assistant Chief Counsel, SBA Office of Advocacy

II. Discussion of the Federal and State Tax Issues Surrounding PPP loans (10:10 a.m. – 11:40 a.m.)

Tom West, Principal, Passthroughs Group KPMG US

Jared Walczak, Vice President of State Projects with the Center for State Tax Policy at the Tax Foundation

III. Open Discussion/Other Small Business Issues (11:40 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.)

* Roundtable meetings are open to all interested persons, except the press, to facilitate an open and frank discussion about issues of interest to small business. Agendas and presentations are available to all, including the press. Anyone who would like to receive roundtable agendas or presentations, or be included on the regular distribution list, should contact charles.jeane@sba.gov. The purpose of these roundtable meetings is to exchange opinions, facts, and information and to obtain the attendees’ individual views and opinions regarding regulatory and policy issues impacting small business. The meetings are not intended to communicate or achieve any consensus positions of the attendees.

Topic Summaries

1. Discussion of the Federal and State Tax Issues Surrounding PPP Loans. The CARES Act created the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to provide loans to small businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The SBA and Treasury have implemented the PPP, and as of August 2020 have provided over five million loans of over $525 billion. Although the CARES Act provides that forgiven PPP loans are not included in gross income at the federal level, there are still federal and state tax issues surrounding PPP loans, including the impact of IRS Notice 2020-32, the tax treatment of an EIDL advance, and whether states will tax forgiven PPP loans.

Speakers:

• Tom West is a Principal in KPMG US’s Washington National Tax practice. He has broad and extensive experience with corporate and passthrough taxation and is a national co-leader of KPMG’s Opportunity Zones practice. Tom joined KPMG in March 2019 from the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Tax Policy. There he served as Tax Legislative Counsel where he developed and reviewed policy, legislation, regulations, and other public guidance dealing with domestic federal tax law, including aspects of the 2017 federal tax reform legislation such as Section 199A. From January to August 2017, Tom served as the acting Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy.

• Jared Walczak is Vice President of State Projects with the Center for State Tax Policy at the Tax Foundation. He is the lead researcher on the annual State Business Tax Climate Index, a 50-state comparative analysis of state tax structure, and Location Matters, a multiple-firms study exploring tax burdens across industries in metropolitan areas across the country. He has authored or coauthored tax reform books on Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Nevada, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Wisconsin. His work has highlighted the effects of tax policy on compliance costs and decision-making for small businesses, including helping to lay the groundwork for the reform of South Carolina’s burdensome business license tax, and educating policymakers across the country on how to limit compliance burdens of post-Wayfair remote sales tax legislation on small businesses. He previously served as legislative director to a member of the Senate of Virginia and as policy director for a statewide campaign, and consulted on research and policy development for several candidates and elected officials.

2. Open Discussion/Other Small Business Issues. A general discussion and open forum to discuss other current events and regulatory topics of specific interest to small business, including items on Treasury’s Regulatory Agenda, draft proposed and final rules pending review at OMB, and other pending policy and regulatory actions.