Does the IRS owe you money?

Your 2019 US corporate tax return checklist

Earlier this year, the US government passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) an emergency $2.3 trillion economic stimulus package to address the impact of COVID-19 on US individual and business taxpayers. The provisions included various tax changes to provide tax deferral, tax reductions and accelerated tax refunds to US businesses.

As the October 15 filing deadline for most US corporate income tax returns approaches, the following checklist may be useful to help corporate taxpayers take advantage of their eligible cuts and file their returns to maximize their potential refunds under the CARES Act.

The CARES Act has also increased the deduction limit for charitable contributions for 2020 from 10% of taxable income to 25% of taxable income. For those taxpayers not as significantly impacted by COVID-19 considering making donations to organizations in need, there may be an additional taxable benefit for making extra donations in 2020.

For a summary of the CARES Act and the full US government response to the coronavirus pandemic, please see our US publication here.

Some taxpayers may have already filed their returns and not fully taken advantage of these legislative changes. In many instances, there may be an ability to file a superseded return prior to the filing deadline or amending a return for which the filing deadline has passed. Our team can help prepare these filings or review your business’s returns to ensure that the benefits of the economic stimulus package are properly reflected on the returns.