Small business owners saw a big win last week when the South Carolina Senate voted to adopt an amendment that would exempt their businesses from a state tax on their fully or partially forgiven PPP loans.
The Paycheck Protection Program provides loans to small businesses to aid in the maintenance of their workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. Small Businesses Administration reported in July that over 60,000 South Carolina businesses had received federal loans through this program. The amendment, introduced by Representative Laurie Funderburk of House District 52, seeks to mitigate expenses experienced by those businesses who received one of these loans.
Representative Funderburk explained to FitsNews her reasoning behind the amendment, stating that she didn’t want the state’s small business owners to be “further burdened by an unexpected tax.”
While many small businesses are still far from full economic recovery, the work of Representative Funderburk and the General Assembly is a step in the right direction.