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The Small Business Administration (SBA) has forgiven over 98% of the total Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan value that borrowers requested them to forgive; recently, however, SBA has begun to issue more forgiveness PPP loan forgiveness denials.
Many of these recent denials issued by the SBA are not consistent with their own guidelines. Borrowers have received denial letters based on:
Borrowers should be aware that such denials are appealable. Consider challenging forgiveness denials if you believe SBA’s decision is in error.
Read our full guide to SBA’s PPP loan forgiveness denial below to learn more about how to appeal a denial, the criteria required for an appeal, and who can represent your company in the process.
If SBA denied your application, you will receive an SBA Final Decision Letter in the mail.
Learn more about what to do if your PPP loan is not forgiven, here.
The first page of the Final Decision letter contains a section indented and in bold that provides the reasons SBA denied your request for forgiveness. It’s important to understand why SBA is rejecting the forgiveness application before taking action- such as appealing the denial.
The decision to deny your PPP loan forgiveness can be made by:
You must respond to SBA and submit your appeal within 30 days of the date listed on your SBA Final Decision Letter. The timeline for SBA forgiveness appeals is inflexible. Once your initial 30-day period expires, you will lose your right to appeal SBA’s denial to forgive your PPP loan.
You must appeal denials of forgiveness to the SBA’s Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) within the 30-day period.
File appeals through OHA’s case portal. Filings for PPP appeals received in any other manner may be rejected and not docketed for processing.
SBA states that OHA has jurisdiction over appeals where SBA has provided the borrower with a PPP final loan review decision finding the borrower:
Learn more about how to appeal an SBA PPP forgiveness denial, here.
The criteria for an appeal filed with the SBA are strict. According to SBA, appeals must contain:
Due to the strict criteria of the appeal, we recommend hiring a qualified attorney to represent your business and help you to create a strong, successful appeal.
An identified legal representative of the business or a qualified attorney must represent the appeal since the SBA PPP loan is a business loan and not a personal loan. To represent your business, one must be:
The following positions are not legally entitled or allowed to represent businesses in the SBA appeal process:
Any appeal denied in the Office of Hearings and Appeals will have to go to a higher court. Why? Because SBA is a federal agency. The process of going to federal court can be extremely tedious and expensive due to the strict regulations.
To avoid the costly and time-consuming process of going to the federal district court, we recommend hiring a qualified attorney to make sure you’re building a strong appeal for your business.
While each case is unique and this is not an indication of success in other cases nor a promise of results, our team at Milikowsky Tax Law has extensive experience in government audits and cases involving government entities from IRS to SBA and CSLB.
Contact Milikowsky Tax Law and learn how we can help.
On Sunday, August 7th of 2022, the Senate passed the Budget Reconciliation Bill, or the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes nearly $80 billion in funding for IRS. More than half of the funding is set for enforcement. IRS aims to collect more from corporate and high-net-worth tax dodgers.
In this article, we will discuss:
Many taxpayers may not know where to start when it comes to reading their Revenue Agent Report.
John Milikowsky, the founder of Milikowsky Tax Law, explains how to read your Revenue Agent Report in detail.
Check out the video below for more information:
In this article, we walk you through the elements that make up an IRS Revenue Agent Report.
The Revenue Agent’s Report is a detailed document describing an IRS examiner’s audit findings. Additionally, the Revenue Agent Report states “the amount of deficiency or refund the agent finds the taxpayer to owe or be owed, respectively.” Taxpayers have the right to disagree with a revenue agent’s report. If taxpayers disagree, they can challenge the agent’s findings through:
IRS audits can be a business owners’ worst nightmare: the hassle, the heaps of paperwork, the potentially hefty bill. However, with the right preparation and resources, an IRS audit doesn’t have to be a stressful event.
Read on for our ultimate guide to IRS audits. We answer all the most common questions to help you navigate an audit as smoothly as possible. Let’s get started.
IRS defines an audit as “as a review and examination of an organization’s or individual’s accounts and financial information to ensure information is reported correctly according to the tax laws and to verify the reported amount of tax is correct.”
You will know if you are selected for an audit if you receive a verified letter in the mail from IRS. They do not call to notify you about your audit.
There are several different reasons your business may be flagged for IRS audits.
Some businesses are audited in random checks. However, the chances of a random audit are low. Most taxpayers have less than a 1% chance of receiving a random audit check.
IRS runs tax returns through their Discriminant Information Function (DIF) system to track industry benchmarks for each industry and tax bracket. The DIF system also checks for incorrect tax filing information. Any discrepancies in tax forms, or if the form isn’t complete, may trigger an IRS audit.
People are more susceptible to an audit if they:
Learn how to avoid IRS red flags from cash transactions, here.
You have 30 days to reply to the initial audit letter.
Your attorney can help by advocating for more time with the IRS agent. We don’t recommend hesitating on responding to an IRS letter on your own, IRS is likely to offer extensions without assistance from an experienced tax attorney who can help present your case.
According to IRS, they may ask for copies of:
We recommend presenting receipts by date with notes of how they were used by or relate to your business.
Business owners can include dated bills with information such as the name of the organization that received the payment as well as the type of service it provides.
Business owners can organize canceled checks with copies of the bills they paid and any applicable employer reimbursement.
Include a description of what the case was about, when it happened and how it relates to your business, credit or deduction. Examples include:
You can view a list of records IRS may request here.
The time it takes to conduct an audit depends on the case. It fluctuates depending on:
IRS audits tax returns from the past three years. However, audits are typically from the past two years.
IRS will not look for information older than three years unless they find discrepancies within the audit they are conducting. Most audits do not look for information past six years. In criminal cases, IRS can look back more than nine years.
If you or someone you know received an audit letter from IRS, reach out to our expert team at Milikowsky Tax Law. We have over a decade of experience working with IRS and tax audits and are experts in defending business owners in the face of IRS or other government agency audits.
Read on to learn how to respond to an IRS audit in 2022, here.
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The information on this website is for general information purposes only. Nothing on this site should be taken as legal advice for any individual case or situation. This information is not intended to create (and receipt or viewing does not constitute) an attorney-client relationship.
© 2022 Milikowsky Tax Law
site designed and maintained by digitalstoryteller.io
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