Tax Type
Corporation Income Tax
Description
Amended return claiming a refund; Net operating loss
Topic
Payment and Refund
Date Issued
11-30-1988
November 30, 1988
Re: §58.1-1821 Application; Corporation Income Tax
§58.1-1823 Amended return claiming a refund
Dear***********************
This is in response to your letter of September 12, 1988, in which you protested the denial of a refund of corporation income tax claimed on form 500-NOLD. We have treated your letter as an application for correction of an erroneous assessment under §58.1-1821.
Facts
The loss occurred in the fiscal year ending 11/30/82 and the refund claimed was attributable to a federal net operating loss deduction in F.Y.E. 11/30/80. The form 500-NOLD was not filed until May 26, 1988, well after the period for filing amended returns had expired.
You protest the denial on the grounds that F.Y.E. 11/30/82 was part of an audit concluded on December 23, 1986, and that you were advised by department personnel that the period for requesting a refund was still open.
Discussion
The period for filing an amended return claiming a refund expires three years after the last day prescribed by law for the timely filing of the original return or, if later, 60 days after the final determination of a change in federal taxable income. §58.1-1823. In the case of a form 500-NOLD, the department treats the amended return claiming a refund due to the carryback of a federal net operating loss as being timely filed if it is filed within three years of the last day prescribed by law for filing the return for the year of the loss, as such date may have been extended by extensions for filing the return or by waivers extending the period for assessing additional tax.
The law clearly imposes a time limit for filing an amended return. I cannot ignore this time limit even though it appears that one or more employees of the department may have given you erroneous or incomplete information about the period in which a form 500-NOLD could be filed for the F.Y.E. 11/30/82.
In this case, it appears that the period for assessing additional tax for the loss year expired on March 15, 1986, over two years before the form 500-NOLD was filed, or on September 15, 1986, if a six month extension was filed. There is no evidence that any waiver was executed extending the period for assessing additional tax. Therefore, the period for filing an amended return clearly expired long before the form 500-NOLD was filed and the refund claim was properly denied.
Sincerely,
W. H. Forst
Tax Commissioner
Rulings of the Tax Commissioner