Who Must Sign

The return must be signed and dated by:

• The president, vice president, treasurer, assistant treasurer, chief accounting officer or
• Any other corporate officer (such as tax officer) authorized to sign.

Receivers, trustees, or assignees must also sign and date any return filed on behalf of a corporation.

If an employee of the corporation completes Form 1120 or Form 1120-A, the paid preparer's space should remain blank. In addition, anyone who prepares Form 1120 or Form 1120-A but does not charge the corporation should not complete that section. Generally, anyone who is paid to prepare the return must sign it and fill in the Paid Preparer's Use Only area.

The paid preparer must complete the required preparer information and -

• Sign the return, by hand, in the space provided for the preparer's signature (signature stamps and labels are not acceptable).
• Give a copy of the return to the taxpayer.

Paid Preparer Authorization

If the corporation wants to allow the IRS to discuss its 2002 tax return with the paid preparer who signed it, check the Yes box in the signature area of the return. This authorization applies only to the individual whose signature appears in the Paid Preparer's Use Only section of the corporation's return. It does not apply to the firm, if any, shown in that section.

If the Yes box is checked, the corporation is authorizing the IRS to call the paid preparer to answer any questions that may arise during the processing of its return. The corporation is also authorizing the paid preparer to:

• Give the IRS any information that is missing from the return,
• Call the IRS for information about the processing of the return or the status of any related refund or payment(s), and
• Respond to certain IRS notices that the corporation has shared with the preparer about math errors, offsets, and return preparation. The notices will not be sent to the preparer.

The corporation is not authorizing the paid preparer to receive any refund check, bind the corporation to anything (including any additional tax liability), or otherwise represent the corporation before the IRS. If the corporation wants to expand the paid preparer's authorization, see Pub. 947, Practice Before the IRS and Power of Attorney.

The authorization cannot be revoked. However, the authorization will automatically end no later than the due date (excluding extensions) for filing the corporation's 2003 tax return.

Other Forms, Returns, and Statements That May Be Required

Forms

The corporation may have to file some of the following forms. See the form for more information.

• Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, and Form W-3, Transmittal of Wage and Tax Statements. Use these forms to report wages, tips, and other compensation, and withheld income, social security, and Medicare taxes for employees.
• Form W-2G, Certain Gambling Winnings. Use this form to report gambling winnings from horse racing, dog racing, jai alai, lotteries, keno, bingo, slot machines, sweepstakes, wagering pools, etc.
• Form 720, Quarterly Federal Excise Tax Return. Use this form to report and pay the luxury tax on passenger vehicles, environmental taxes, communications and air transportation taxes, fuel taxes, manufacturers taxes, ship passenger taxes, and certain other excise taxes.
• Form 851, Affiliations Schedule. The parent corporation of an affiliated group of corporations must attach this form to its consolidated return. If this is the first year one or more subsidiaries are being included in a consolidated return, also see Form 1122, Authorization and Consent of Subsidiary Corporation To Be Included in a Consolidated Income Tax Return, on page 4.
• Form 926, Return by a U.S. Transferor of Property to a Foreign Corporation. Use this form to report certain transfers to foreign corporations under section 6038B.
• Form 940 or Form 940-EZ, Employer's Annual Federal Unemployment (FUTA) Tax Return. The corporation may be liable for FUTA tax and may have to file Form 940 or Form 940-EZ if it either:
  1. Paid wages of $1,500 or more in any calendar quarter in 2001 or 2002 or
  2. Had one or more employees who worked for the corporation for at least some part of a day in any 20 or more different weeks in 2001 or 20 or more different weeks in 2002.
• Form 941, Employer's Quarterly Federal Tax Return, or Form 943, Employer's Annual Tax Return for Agricultural Employees. Employers must file these forms to report income tax withheld, and employer and employee social security and Medicare taxes. Also, see Trust fund recovery penalty on page 7.
• Form 945, Annual Return of Withheld Federal Income Tax. File Form 945 to report income tax withheld from nonpayroll distributions or payments, including pensions, annuities, IRAs, gambling winnings, and backup withholding. See Trust fund recovery penalty on page 7.
• Form 952, Consent To Extend the Time To Assess Tax Under Section 332(b). This form is filed to extend the period of assessment of all income taxes of the receiving corporation on the complete liquidation of a subsidiary under section 332.
• Form 966, Corporate Dissolution or Liquidation. Use this form to report the adoption of a resolution or plan to dissolve the corporation or liquidate any of its stock.
• Form 1042, Annual Withholding Tax Return for U.S. Source Income of Foreign Persons;
• Form 1042-S, Foreign Person's U.S. Source Income Subject to Withholding; and
• Form 1042-T, Annual Summary and Transmittal of Forms 1042-S. Use these forms to report and send withheld tax on payments or distributions made to nonresident alien individuals, foreign partnerships, or foreign corporations to the extent these payments constitute gross income from sources within the United States (see sections 861 through 865).
  Also see Pub. 515, Withholding of Tax on Nonresident Aliens and Foreign Entities, and sections 1441 and 1442.
• Form 1096, Annual Summary and Transmittal of U.S. Information Returns.
• Form 1098, Mortgage Interest Statement. Use this form to report the receipt from any individual of $600 or more of mortgage interest (including points) in the course of the corporation's trade or business and reimbursements of overpaid interest.
• Form 1098-E, Student Loan Interest Statement. Use this form to report the receipt of $600 or more of student loan interest in the course of the corporation's trade or business.
• Forms 1099. Use these information returns to report the following.
  1. 1099-A, Acquisition or Abandonment of Secured Property.
  2. 1099-B, Proceeds From Broker and Barter Exchange Transactions.
  3. 1099-C, Cancellation of Debt.
  4. 1099-DIV, Dividends and Distributions.
  5. 1099-INT, Interest Income.
  6. 1099-LTC, Long-Term Care and Accelerated Death Benefits.
  7. 1099-MISC, Miscellaneous Income. Use this form to report payments: to certain fishing boat crew members, to providers of health and medical services, of rent or royalties, of nonemployee compensation, etc.
     Note:   Every corporation must file Form 1099-MISC if it makes payments of rents, commissions, or other fixed or determinable income (see section 6041) totaling $600 or more to any one person in the course of its trade or business during the calendar year.
  8. 1099-MSA, Distributions From an Archer MSA or Medicare+Choice MSA.
  9. 1099-OID, Original Issue Discount.
  10. 1099-PATR, Taxable Distributions Received From Cooperatives.
  11. 1099-R, Distributions From Pensions, Annuities, Retirement or Profit-Sharing Plans, IRAs, Insurance Contracts, etc.
  12. 1099-S, Proceeds From Real Estate Transactions.
  Also use these returns to report amounts received as a nominee for another person.
• Form 1122, Authorization and Consent of Subsidiary Corporation To Be Included in a Consolidated Income Tax Return. For the first year a subsidiary corporation is being included in a consolidated return, attach the completed form to the parent's consolidated return. Attach a separate Form 1122 for each subsidiary being included in the consolidated return.
• Form 3520, Annual Return To Report Transactions With Foreign Trusts and Receipt of Certain Foreign Gifts. Use this form to report a distribution received from a foreign trust; or, if the corporation was the grantor of, transferor of, or transferor to, a foreign trust that existed during the tax year. See Question 5 of Schedule N (Form 1120).
• Form 5452, Corporate Report of Nondividend Distributions. Use this form to report nondividend distributions.
• Form 5471, Information Return of U.S. Persons With Respect to Certain Foreign Corporations. This form is required if the corporation controls a foreign corporation; acquires, disposes of, or owns 10% or more in value or vote of the outstanding stock of a foreign corporation; or had control of a foreign corporation for an uninterrupted period of at least 30 days during the annual accounting period of the foreign corporation. See Question 4 of Schedule N (Form 1120).
• Form 5472, Information Return of a 25% Foreign-Owned U.S. Corporation or a Foreign Corporation Engaged in a U.S. Trade or Business. This form is filed if the corporation is 25% or more foreign-owned. See Question 7 on page 19.
• Form 5498, IRA and Coverdell ESA Contribution Information. Use this form to report contributions (including rollover contributions) to any IRA, including a SEP, SIMPLE, or Roth IRA, or a Coverdell ESA, and to report Roth IRA conversions, IRA recharacterizations, and the fair market value of the account.
• Form 5498-MSA, Archer MSA or Medicare+Choice MSA Information. Use this form to report contributions to an Archer MSA and the fair market value of an Archer MSA or Medicare+Choice MSA.
  For more information, see the general and specific Instructions for Forms 1099, 1098, 5498, and W-2G.
• Form 5713, International Boycott Report. Corporations that had operations in, or related to, certain boycotting countries file Form 5713.
• Form 8023, Elections Under Section 338 for Corporations Making Qualified Stock Purchases. Corporations file this form to make elections under section 338 for a target corporation if the purchasing corporation has made a qualified stock purchase of the target corporation.
• Form 8027, Employer's Annual Information Return of Tip Income and Allocated Tips. Use this form to report receipts from large food or beverage operations, tips reported by employees, and allocated tips.
• Form 8050, Direct Deposit of Corporate Tax Refund. File Form 8050 to request that the IRS deposit a corporate tax refund (including a refund of $1 million or more) directly into an account at any U.S. bank or other financial institution (such as a mutual fund or brokerage firm) that accepts direct deposits.
• Form 8264, Application for Registration of a Tax Shelter. Tax shelter organizers use this form to receive a tax shelter registration number from the IRS.
• Form 8271, Investor Reporting of Tax Shelter Registration Number. Corporations, which have acquired an interest in a tax shelter that is required to be registered, use this form to report the tax shelter's registration number. Attach Form 8271 to any tax return (including an application for tentative refund (Form 1139) and an amended return) on which a deduction, credit, loss, or other tax benefit attributable to a tax shelter is taken or any income attributable to a tax shelter is reported.
• Form 8275, Disclosure Statement, and Form 8275-R, Regulation Disclosure Statement. Disclose items or positions taken on a tax return that are not otherwise adequately disclosed on a tax return or that are contrary to Treasury regulations (to avoid parts of the accuracy-related penalty or certain preparer penalties).
• Form 8281, Information Return for Publicly Offered Original Issue Discount Instruments. Use this form to report the issuance of public offerings of debt instruments (obligations).
• Form 8288, U.S. Withholding Tax Return for Dispositions by Foreign Persons of U.S. Real Property Interests, and Form 8288-A, Statement of Withholding on Dispositions by Foreign Persons of U.S. Real Property Interests. Use these forms to report and transmit withheld tax on the purchase of a U.S. real property interest from a foreign person. See section 1445 and the related regulations for more information.
• Form 8300, Report of Cash Payments Over $10,000 Received in a Trade or Business. Use this form to report the receipt of more than $10,000 in cash or foreign currency in one transaction or a series of related transactions.
• Form 8594, Asset Acquisition Statement Under Section 1060. Corporations file this form to report the purchase or sale of a group of assets that make up a trade or business if goodwill or going concern value attaches or could attach to the assets and if the buyer's basis is determined only by the amount paid for the assets.
• Form 8621, Return by a Shareholder of a Passive Foreign Investment Company or Qualified Electing Fund. Use this form to make certain elections by shareholders in a passive foreign investment company and to figure certain deferred taxes.
• Form 8697, Interest Computation Under the Look-Back Method for Completed Long-Term Contracts. Use this form to figure the interest due or to be refunded under the look-back method of section 460(b)(2). The look-back method applies to certain long-term contracts accounted for under the either percentage of completion method or the percentage of completion-capitalized cost method.
• Form 8810, Corporate Passive Activity Loss and Credit Limitations. Closely held corporations (and corporations that are personal service corporations) must use this form to compute the passive activity loss and credit allowed under section 469.
• Form 8817, Allocation of Patronage and Nonpatronage Income and Deductions. Use this form to figure and report patronage and nonpatronage income and deductions (used by taxable cooperatives).
• Form 8842, Election To Use Different Annualization Periods for Corporate Estimated Tax. Corporations use Form 8842 for each year they want to elect one of the annualization periods in section 6655(e)(2) for figuring estimated tax payments under the annualized income installment method.
• Form 8849, Claim for Refund of Excise Taxes. Corporations use this form to claim a refund of certain excise taxes.
• Form 8865, Return of U.S. Persons With Respect to Certain Foreign Partnerships. A domestic corporation may have to file Form 8865 if it:
  1. Controlled a foreign partnership (i.e., owned more than a 50% direct or indirect interest in the partnership).
  2. Owned at least a 10% direct or indirect interest in a foreign partnership while U.S. persons controlled that partnership.
  3. Had an acquisition, disposition, or change in proportional interest in a foreign partnership that:
     1. Increased its direct interest to at least 10% or reduced its direct interest of at least 10% to less than 10%.
     2. Changed its direct interest by at least a 10% interest.
  4. Contributed property to a foreign partnership in exchange for a partnership interest if:
     1. Immediately after the contribution, the corporation owned, directly or indirectly, at least a 10% interest in the foreign partnership or
     2. The fair market value of the property the corporation contributed to the foreign partnership, when added to other contributions of property made to the foreign partnership during the preceding 12-month period, exceeds $100,000.

        Also, the domestic corporation may have to file Form 8865 to report certain dispositions by a foreign partnership of property it previously contributed to that partnership if it was a partner at the time of the disposition.

        For more details, including penalties for failing to file Form 8865, see Form 8865 and its separate instructions.

• Form 8866, Interest Computation Under the Look-Back Method for Property Depreciated Under the Income Forecast Method. Figure the interest due or to be refunded under the look-back method of section 167(g)(2) for property placed in service after September 13, 1995, that is depreciated under the income forecast method.
• Form 8876, Excise Tax on Structured Settlement Factoring Transactions. Use this form to report and pay the 40% excise tax imposed under section 5891.
• Form 8883, Asset Allocation Statement Under Section 338. Corporations file this form to report information about transactions involving the deemed sale of corporate assets under section 338.

Amended Return

Use Form 1120X, Amended U.S. Corporation Income Tax Return, to correct a previously filed Form 1120 or Form 1120-A.

Statements

Consolidated returns.   File supporting statements for each corporation included in the consolidated return. Do not use Form 1120 as a supporting statement. On the supporting statement, use columns to show the following, both before and after adjustments:

1. Items of gross income and deductions.
2. A computation of taxable income.
3. Balance sheets as of the beginning and end of the tax year.
4. A reconciliation of income per books with income per return.
5. A reconciliation of retained earnings.

Enter the totals for the consolidated group on Form 1120. Attach consolidated balance sheets and a reconciliation of consolidated retained earnings. For more information on consolidated returns, see the regulations under section 1502.

Tax shelter disclosure statement.   For each reportable tax shelter transaction entered into prior to January 1, 2003, in which the corporation participated, directly or indirectly, the corporation must attach a disclosure statement to its return for each tax year that its Federal income tax liability is affected by its participation in the transaction. In addition, for the first tax year a disclosure statement is attached to its return, the corporation must send a copy of the disclosure statement to the Internal Revenue Service, LM:PFTG:OTSA, Large & Mid-Size Business Division, 1111 Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20224. If a transaction becomes a reportable transaction after the corporation files its return, it must attach a statement to the following year's return (whether or not its tax liability is affected for that year). The corporation is considered to have indirectly participated if it participated as a partner in a partnership or if it knows or has reason to know that the tax benefits claimed were derived from a reportable transaction.

Disclosure is required for a reportable transaction that is a listed transaction. A transaction is a listed transaction if it is the same as or substantially similar to a transaction that the IRS has determined to be a tax avoidance transaction and has identified as a listed transaction by notice, regulation, or other published guidance. See Notice 2001-51, 2001-34 I.R.B. 190, for transactions identified by the IRS as listed transactions. The listed transactions identified in this notice will be updated in future published guidance.

See Temporary Regulations section 1.6011-4T for details, including:

1. Definitions of reportable transaction, listed transaction, and substantially similar.
2. Form and content of the disclosure statement.
3. Filing requirements for the disclosure statement.

For reportable transactions entered into after December 31, 2002, use Form 8886, Reportable Transaction Disclosure Statement, to disclose information for each reportable transaction in which the corporation participated, directly or indirectly. Form 8886 must be filed for each tax year that the Federal income tax liability of the corporation is affected by its participation in the transaction. The following are reportable transactions.

• Any transaction that is the same as or substantially similar to tax avoidance transactions identified by the IRS.
• Any transaction offered under conditions of confidentiality.
• Any transaction for which the corporation has contractual protection against disallowance of the tax benefits.
• Any transaction resulting in a loss of at least $10 million in any single year or $20 million in any combination of years.
• Any transaction resulting in a book-tax difference of more than $10 million on a gross basis.
• Any transaction resulting in a tax credit of more than $250,000, if the corporation held the asset generating the credit for less than 45 days.

See the Instructions for Form 8886 for more details.

Stock ownership in foreign corporations.   Attach the statement required by section 551(c) if:

• The corporation owned 5% or more in value of the outstanding stock of a foreign personal holding company and
• The corporation was required to include in its gross income any undistributed foreign personal holding company income from a foreign personal holding company.

Transfers to a corporation controlled by the transferor.   If a person receives stock of a corporation in exchange for property, and no gain or loss is recognized under section 351, the person (transferor) and the transferee must each attach to their tax returns the information required by Regulations section 1.351-3.

Dual consolidated losses.   If a domestic corporation incurs a dual consolidated loss (as defined in Regulations section 1.1503-2(c)(5)), the corporation (or consolidated group) may need to attach an elective relief agreement and/or an annual certification as provided in Regulations section 1.1503-2(g)(2).

Previous| First | Next

Instructions Index | 2002 Tax Help Archives | Tax Help Archives | Home