C Corp Carry Forward

[waynehatch]

I prepared a 2020 return for a C Corp that made a few thousand dollars. The principle told me that this was the first time in years that he hadn't lost money. I have the 2019 return so I can see that but there is no indication of any carry forward. If I know the loss for TY 2018 and 2019 can I just enter that in the 2020 return or do I need to amend those years.

[dkh]

If you have the 2019 return you should be able to see the loss carryforward on line 29a or the loss for 2019 on line 28.        I'd ask for the prior year returns for as far back as necessary to find the year(s) with a loss.

[waynehatch]

That is the problem. I can see the loss on line on line 28 but the is no entry on line 29a. There is an NOL worksheet showing the losses back to 2013. So can I ignore the lack of an entry in 2019 and just pick up NOL in 2020? Or do I have to amend the 2019 return?

[dkh]

How sure are you that the 2019 NOL was not carried back?  

[waynehatch]

Thanks for the response.

I dug a bit deeper and found a worksheet listing the losses going back to 2013. No carry forward had ever been taken. I entered the amount I needed to use and it came out of 2013. I decided not to amend any prior year, just take the NOL for 2020. Good exercise in NOL for me. I generally do not do C Corps but this was a friend/client that I do other tax work for and he was in a bind to get it done.