The Internal Revenue Service is giving taxpayers until the end of the year before it stops its temporary procedures for faxing in Forms 1045 and 1139 for claiming tentative tax refunds, instead of mailing them, which it has allowed as part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In April, the IRS began allowing taxpayers to file both forms by fax while many IRS employees worked remotely and were unable to process the mail.
Liz is a Certified Financial Planning Professional and is serving clients at Planning Across the Spectrum as the Director of Financial Planning. Liz joined Planning Across the Spectrum in February 2021 after working with two traditional financial planning firms. She works mostly remotely from Maryland, where she lives with her husband, son, puppy, and backyard chickens. She is excited to move beyond traditional planning into the specialized world supporting families with I/DD and ASD.
Andrew is the founder of Planning Across the Spectrum. From his personal experience as an individual with ASD, he was inspired to create Planning Across the Spectrum to specifically work with individuals, families, and care teams of those with special needs. Andrew is a known national advocate for Autism awareness and serves on various boards and advisory committees. Andrew is CFP®, Behavioral Financial Advisor (BFA™), and Chartered Special Needs Consultant (ChSNC®) among his other designations. (He has more than Michael Kitces.)
Sandra Wiley, the president of Boomer Consulting Inc., is ranked by Accounting Today as one of the 100 most influential people in accounting as a result of her prominent role as an industry expert on HR and training as well as influence as a management and planning consultant. She is a certified Kolbetrainer who advises firms on building balanced teams, managing employee conflict and hiring staff. Her Kolbe Index reveals her to be a visionary leader who is gifted with the ability to tackle emerging as well as future challenges. Wiley is regularly invited to speak at national conferences, and is a popular author who is frequently published by many trade journals including CPA Practice Management Report, Accounting Today, Accounting Web, The CPA Practice Management Forum, The CPA Report of South Carolina, Lagniappe of Louisiana and The Asset of Missouri Societies. She also contributes a regular column covering human resources to the Boomer Bulletin and penned an award winning marketing plan, Rebuilding the Community Bank, published by the Bank Marketing Association. Prior to joining Boomer, she worked for over 16 years in the financial services industry in the areas of human resources, marketing/sales, training, and business development. She has developed and presented over 50 training programs and numerous one-day seminars in human resources and marketing/sales. She was an officer of the American Institute of Banking. Wiley is a graduate of Friends University, in Wichita, Kansas, where she earned a bachelor's degree in Human Resource Management. She also graduated with honors from the University of Colorado School of Bank Marketing. She and her husband, Doug, make their home in Manhattan, Kansas. They have three children: Charlie, Deanna and Sarah.
An individual, estate or trust can file Form 1045, Application for Tentative Refund, to apply for a quick tax refund resulting from the carryback of a net operating loss, the carryback of an unused general business credit, the carryback of a net section 1256 contracts loss, or an overpayment of tax due to a claim of right adjustment under section 1341(b)(1) of the Tax Code.
Corporations (other than S corps) can file Form 1139, Corporation Application for Tentative Refund, to apply for a quick refund of taxes from the carryback of a net operating loss (or a loss from operations of a life insurance company), the carryback of a net capital loss, the carryback of an unused general business credit, or an overpayment of tax from a claim of right adjustment under section 1341(b)(1).
The CARES Act, which Congress passed in March in response to the coronavirus crisis, included some provisions allowing companies to carryback their net operating losses for five years and file refund claims, giving them a quick capital infusion in the midst of the pandemic. Taxpayers with a net operating loss arising in a tax year starting in 2018, 2019 or 2020 can carry that loss back to each of the five preceding years unless the taxpayer elects to waive or reduce the carryback. The law also allows a carryback for a two-year period of NOLs for a tax year that began in 2017 and ended during 2018.
Another section of the CARES Act modifies the credit for prior-year minimum tax liability of corporations, including to accelerate the recovery of remaining minimum tax credits of a corporation for its 2019 taxable year from its 2021 taxable year and to allow a corporation to elect instead to recover 100 percent of any of its remaining minimum tax credits in its 2018 taxable year. In April, the IRS began allowing taxpayers on a temporary basis to fax in Forms 1045 and 1139 to expedite the tax refund process.
However, on Wednesday, the IRS added an entry to its Frequently Asked Questions page describing the temporary procedures to say the procedure will end on Dec. 31, 2020. After midnight on New Year’s Eve, the fax numbers will no longer be operational. The IRS noted that the end of the faxing process is independent of any filing due dates. For example, the last day to file Form 1139 electing to take the 100 percent refundable minimum tax credit in 2018, is Dec. 30, 2020.
“Additionally, if you file one application for a tentative refund and claim both the NOL carryback and the minimum tax credit at the same time, you must file the application by the earliest applicable deadline,” the IRS noted.
