Guidance has been posted on the IRS website in the form of questions and answers regarding the carryback of net operating losses for corporations under the CARES Act into years when the alternative minimum tax (AMT) was still in force.[1]

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) repealed the corporate alternative minimum tax beginning in 2018 and removed the ability for taxpayers to carry losses from 2018 back into 2017 and earlier years. However, when the CARES Act added a provision allowing net operating losses from 2018-2020 to be carried back five years, these losses from years when the AMT no longer applied were being carried back to years when the AMT still applied to taxpayers. So what was the alternative tax net operating loss (ATNOL) for these years to carry back to those earlier years?

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, in the case of Bea v. Commissioner, Case No. 18-10511, held that a married couple could not obtain relief from making an irrevocable election with their tax returns merely because they were not aware of the election.  Rather, the Court found that the taxpayer had signed and submitted a return that had the election on it, and the fact they failed to review the return before filing did not allow them to obtain relief.

Being "close" to what is required is not enoughtCongress has enacted rather detailed requirements that must be met in order to claim a charitable contribution deduction.  One of those is the requirement at IRC §170(h)(4)(B)(iii) that provides as one of the requirements to make a deductible contribution of a qualified contribution easement the following:

(iii) in the case of any contribution made in a taxable year beginning after the date of the enactment of this subparagraph, the taxpayer includes with the taxpayer's return for the taxable year of the contribution -

(I) a qualified appraisal (within the meaning of subsection (f)(11)(E)) of the qualified property interest…

As the taxpayers in the case of Gemperle v. Commissioner, TC Memo 2016-1 discovered, a failure to meet such requirements will be fatal to the claimed deduction.