Businesses that receive debt forgiveness from the emergency loan program created by Congress could face an unwelcome surprise without more clarity from their state legislatures: tax bills on those forgiven loans.
Debt forgiveness typically counts as a taxable benefit, but Congress made loans from the $349 billion Paycheck Protection Program forgivable as long as certain conditions are met, and said the federal government wouldn’t tax the discharged debt. But unless some states update their own tax codes to allow for similar forgiveness they may end up taxing debt relief intended as economic aid.
Some states, like New York and Tennessee, ...