| | | You totally don't understand how this works.
Yes, he apparently reported a 900M NOL in that one year, and that loss would have been carried back 3 years to get refunds of the prior three years taxes, and could be carried forward for UP TO 15 years to offset income earned.
But without seeing what happened in the surrounding years, we cannot really know what he got or didn't. For example, there could (likely was) have been a big loss in the prior year which would have been itself carried back 3 years, hence, no tax was paid for the prior three years, in which case, he would only have the 15 year carryforward period to work with.
More likely, however, he had a far more complex situation in which he had debt discharged in a bankruptcy filing. To the extent that discharged debt left him technically solvent, that debt may have been discharged the following year (or the prior year) generating significant income. Which he may or may not have paid taxes on, but if he did he would be filing a claim for refund, applying a significant portion of the NOL to another year. In that case, it is entirely possible that the entire NOL, or a substantial part of it, could have been used in one year without his ever receiving a nickel of refund or deduction for it, as it would be credited against discharge of indebtedness which is by definition, ordinary income under §60.
In addition, it is likely that there were substantial assets acquired for which depreciation was deducted in a prior year which would be subject to the depreciation recapture provisions of §§1245 and 1250, requiring the recapture of depreciation allowed or allowable as ordinary income. Which the loss would then be applied against, presumably in the prior year. One would think those amounts could be substantial in prior years. Also, the recapture rules apply to IRC §179 property (but I don't know what the maximum would have been in those years; it started at $5,000 but has now made it to a much larger sum).
The bottom line is that it is highly unlikely that loss covered an 18 year period. Not impossible. But not likely. Most of was almost assuredly used up over a three or four year period surrounding the dates of the bankruptcies which gave rise to the original NOL. That return would have been audited by IRS and the loss could well have been modified in subsequent year examinations.
To claim he didn't pay taxes for 18 years as a result of this item is almost certainly wrong. |
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