Claiming a Credit

You make a claim for credit on Form 4136 and attach it to your income tax return. Do not claim a credit for any amount for which you have filed a refund claim.

When to file. You can claim a fuel tax credit on your income tax return for the year you used the fuel (or sold the fuel in the case of gasohol blender or registered ultimate vendor claims).

Once you have filed a Form 4136, you cannot file an amended return to show an increase in the number of gallons reported on a line of that form. See the following discussion for when you can file a claim on an amended return.

Fuel tax claim on amended return. You may be able to make a fuel tax claim on an amended return for the year you used or sold the fuels. Generally, you must file an amended return by the later of 3 years from the date you filed your original income tax return or within 2 years from the time you paid the income tax. A return filed early is considered to have been filed on the due date.

You can file an amended return to claim a fuel tax credit if any of the following apply.

• You did not claim any credit for fuel taxes on Form 4136 for the tax year.
• Your credit is for gasohol blending, discussed in chapter 1.
• Your credit is for a claim group, explained next, for which you did not previously file a claim on Form 4136 for the tax year.

Claims on Form 4136 (other than for gasohol blending) are separated into seven claim groups. Once you file Form 4136 with a claim for a group, you cannot file an amended return with another claim for that group. However, you can file an amended return with a claim for another group.

The following tables show what claims are in each group. The numbers in the second column of each table refer to the line numbers on Form 4136. The numbers in the third column are from the Type of Use Table shown as Table 1-1 in chapter 1.

Table 3-3. Claim Groups for Tax Years 1998-2000

Table 3-4. Claim Groups for Tax Years After 2000

For each tax year, you can make only one claim for each group.

Example. You file your 2001 income tax return and claim a fuel tax credit. Your Form 4136 shows an amount on line 1b for use of gasoline on a farm for farming purposes. This is a Group I claim. You cannot amend your return to claim a credit for an amount on line 2b for use of aviation gasoline on a farm for farming purposes (Type of Use 1) since that is also a Group I claim. However, if you used aviation fuel on a farm for farming purposes, you can amend your return to claim the credit for that fuel tax because that would be a Group VI claim reported on line 5b (Type of Use 1).

How to claim a credit. How you claim a credit depends on whether you are an individual, partnership, corporation, S corporation, or farmers' cooperative.

Individuals. You claim the credit on line 65 of Form 1040. Check box b on line 65. If you would not otherwise have to file an income tax return, you must do so to get a fuel tax credit.

Partnerships. A partnership cannot claim the credit on Form 1065, U.S. Return of Partnership Income. The partnership must include on line 25 of Schedule K-1 (Form 1065), Partner's Share of Income, Credits, Deductions, etc., each partner's share of the number of gallons of each fuel sold or used for a nontaxable use, the type of use, and the applicable credit per gallon. Each partner claims the credit on his or her income tax return for his or her share of the fuel used by the partnership.

An electing large partnership can claim the credit on line 27 of Form 1065-B, U.S. Return of Income for Electing Large Partnerships.

Corporations. To claim the credit, corporations use either line 32g of Form 1120, U.S. Corporation Income Tax Return, or line 28g of Form 1120-A, U.S. Corporation Short-Form Income Tax Return.

S corporations. To claim the credit, S corporations use line 23c of Form 1120S, U.S. Income Tax Return for an S Corporation.

Farmers' cooperative associations. If the cooperative must file Form 990-C, Farmers' Cooperative Association Income Tax Return, it uses line 32g to claim the credit.

Trusts. Trusts required to file Form 1041, U.S. Income Tax Return for Estates and Trusts, use line 24g to claim the credit.

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