Purpose of Form

Individuals, estates, and trusts use Form 1045 to apply for a quick tax refund resulting from:

Tax-exempt trusts claiming a refund of taxes reported on Form 990-T should refer to the Instructions for Form 990-T for information on how to claim the refund.

Carrying back an NOL to an earlier tax year may create an alternative minimum tax (AMT) liability for that earlier year. This may be true even if there was no AMT liability on the tax return filed for that earlier year. See the Instructions for Form 6251.

Individuals, estates, and trusts that carry NOLs back to years in which they have a section 965(a) inclusion (“965 year”) may not use this form. You must use an amended return to carry back to such years.

Definitions

When To File

Generally, you must file Form 1045 within 1 year after the end of the year in which an NOL, unused credit, net section 1256 contracts loss, or claim of right adjustment arose.

If you were affected by a federally declared disaster, you may have additional time to file your Form 1045. For more information, go to IRS.gov/DisasterTaxRelief.

Do not file your 2025 Form 1045 before you file your 2025 income tax return.

Where To File

You can file a paper Form 1045 with the Internal Revenue Service Center for the place where you live as shown in the instructions for your 2025 income tax return.

Don’t include Form 1045 in the same envelope as your 2025 income tax return.

What To Attach

Attach copies of the following, if applicable, to Form 1045 for the year of the loss or credit.

Also attach to Form 1045 copies of all forms or schedules for items refigured in the carryback years, such as Form 3800; Form 6251 (original and revised for each gain year); Schedule 8812 (Form 1040), and/or worksheets; Form 6781; Form 8960; Form 8962; and Form 8995 and/or Form 8995-A.

Estates and trusts, attach copies of Form 1041 with accompanying schedules, and any forms, computation sheets, and elections outlined above, if applicable.

You must attach copies of all required forms listed above and complete all lines on Form 1045 that apply to you. Otherwise, your application may be delayed or disallowed.

Processing the Application

The IRS will process your application within 90 days from the later of:

The processing of Form 1045 and the payment of the requested refund doesn’t mean the IRS has accepted your application as correct. If the IRS later determines that the claimed deductions or credits are due to an overstatement of the value of property, negligence, disregard of rules, or substantial understatement of income tax, you may have to pay penalties. Any additional tax will also generate interest compounded daily.

The IRS may need to contact you or your authorized representative (for example, your accountant or tax return preparer) for more information so we can process your application. If you want to designate a representative for us to contact, attach a copy of your authorization to Form 1045. For this purpose, you can use Form 2848, Power of Attorney and Declaration of Representative.

Disallowance of the Application

Your application isn’t treated as a claim for credit or refund. It may be disallowed if it has material omissions or math errors that aren’t corrected within the 90-day period. If the application is disallowed in whole or in part, no suit challenging the disallowance can be brought in any court. However, you can file a regular claim for credit or refund before the limitation period expires, as explained later under Form 1040-X or Other Amended Return .

Excessive Allowances

Any amount applied, credited, or refunded based on this application that the IRS later determines to be excessive may be assessed and billed to you as if it were due to a math or clerical error on the return.

Form 1040-X or Other Amended Return

Individuals can claim a refund by filing Form 1040-X, Amended U.S. Individual Income Tax Return, instead of Form 1045. An estate or trust can file an amended Form 1041, U.S. Income Tax Return for Estates and Trusts.

If you use Form 1040-X or other amended return, follow the instructions for that return.

You must file Form 1040-X (or other amended return) instead of Form 1045 to carry back:

See Form 1040-X and its instructions for more information.

Additional Information

For more details on NOLs, see the Instructions for Form 172.

Address

Line 1b—Unused General Business Credit

If you claim a tentative refund based on the carryback of an unused general business credit, attach a detailed computation showing how you figured the credit carryback and a recomputation of the credit after you apply the carryback. See Code section 39.

If you filed a joint return (or separate return) for some but not all of the tax years involved in figuring the unused credit carryback, special rules apply to figure the carryback. See the Instructions for Form 3800.

Line 1c—Net Section 1256 Contracts Loss

Reflect the carryback as a reduction to your adjusted gross income in the “After carryback” column on line 11. Attach to Form 1045 a copy of Form 6781 and Schedule D (Form 1040) for the year of the net section 1256 contracts loss, as well as an amended Form 6781 and an amended Schedule D (Form 1040) for each carryback year. See Code section 1212(c) for more detail.

Line 2c—Resubmitting Form 1045 in Response to IRS Correspondence

New line 2c adds a checkbox to indicate if you are resubmitting Form 1045 in response to IRS correspondence. If you check the box, submit only the requested items to add documentation or support documentation on your original claim. The entire package is not needed again to complete your electronic filing of Form 1045.

Line 4

If you filed a joint return (or separate return) or your marital status changed for some but not all of the tax years involved in figuring the carryback, special rules apply to figure the carryback. You must attach detailed allocation schedules for a filing status change or for different spouses between the gain and loss years. See the Instructions for Form 172.

Line 9

If an NOL or net section 1256 contracts loss carryback eliminates or reduces a prior year foreign tax credit, you can’t use Form 1045 to carry the released foreign tax credits to earlier years. Also, if the released foreign tax credits result in the release of general business credits, you can’t use Form 1045 to carry the released general business credits to earlier years. Instead, you must file Form 1040-X or other amended return to claim a refund for those years. See Revenue Ruling 82-154 for more details.

Lines 10 Through 32—Computation of Decrease in Tax

Figure the amount of decrease, from the carryback, in tax previously figured for each tax year before the tax year of the NOL, net capital loss, or unused credit. The tax previously figured will be the tax shown on the return as filed, increased by any amounts assessed (or collected without assessment) as deficiencies before the date of the filing of the application for a tentative carryback adjustment, and decreased by any amounts abated, credited, refunded, or otherwise repaid prior to that date.

For purposes of the tentative carryback adjustment, any items over which you and the IRS are in disagreement at the time of the filing of the application will be taken into account in figuring the tax previously figured only if, and to the extent that, they were reported on the return or were reflected, before the date of filing the application, in any amounts assessed (or collected without assessment) as deficiencies or abated, credited, refunded, or otherwise repaid.

After figuring the tax previously determined, figure the decrease in tax previously determined caused by the carryback and any related adjustments on the basis of the items of tax taken into account in figuring the tax previously determined. In figuring any decrease caused by the carryback or any related adjustment, items must be taken into account only to the extent that they were reported on the return, or were reflected, before the date of filing the application for a tentative carryback adjustment, in amounts assessed (or collected without assessment) as deficiencies or abated, credited, refunded, or otherwise repaid.

If you and the IRS are in disagreement as to the proper treatment of any item, it must be assumed, for purposes of figuring the decrease in the tax previously figured, that you reported the item correctly unless, and to the extent that, the disagreement has resulted in the assessment of a deficiency (or the collection of an amount without an assessment) or the allowing or making of an abatement, credit, refund, or other repayment, before the date of filing the application.

Use one pair of columns to enter amounts before and after carryback for each year to which the loss or credit is being carried. Start with the earliest carryback year. See the instructions for line 10, later, to figure the tax years to which you can carry an NOL. Use the remaining pairs of columns for each consecutive preceding tax year until the loss is fully absorbed. Enter the ordinal number of years the loss is being carried back and the date the carryback year ends in the spaces provided in the headings above line 10 for each pair of columns.

For each carryback year, enter in the column labeled “Before carryback” the amounts for the carryback year as shown on your original or amended return. If the amounts were previously adjusted by you or the IRS, enter the amounts after adjustment.

Line 10—NOL Deduction After Carryback

Use the following rules when calculating the NOL and NOL Carryover on Form 172.

Line 11—Adjusted Gross Income

Enter in the column labeled “Before carryback” your adjusted gross income (AGI) for the carryback year as shown on your original or amended return.

Enter in the column labeled “After carryback” your AGI refigured after you apply the NOL, or net section 1256 contracts loss carryback, and after you refigure any items of income, credits, and deductions that are based on, or limited to, a percentage of your AGI. Amounts to refigure may include:

Line 12—Deductions

Line 14—Exemptions

Enter the exemption amount allowed on your return for the carryback year. See the form and the instructions for your carryback year.

Line 16—Income Tax

Use your refigured taxable income (Form 1045, line 15, using the “After carryback” column) to refigure your tax for each carryback year. Include any tax from Form 4970, Tax on Accumulation Distribution of Trusts, and Form 4972, Tax on Lump-Sum Distributions. Attach any schedule used to figure your tax or an explanation of the method used to figure the tax and, if necessary, a detailed computation.

For example, write “Tax Computation Worksheet—2023” if this is the method used for that year. You don’t need to attach a detailed computation of the tax in this case.

Line 17—Excess Advance Premium Tax Credit Repayment

Use the Form 8962 and Instructions for Form 8962, Premium Tax Credit (PTC), for your carryback year(s) to figure/refigure the amount of your premium tax credit (PTC), advance payment of the premium tax credit (APTC), and excess APTC, for the “Before carryback” and “After carryback” columns. Include any excess APTC on line 17 for both the “Before carryback” and “After carryback” columns.

Line 18—Alternative Minimum Tax

The carryback of an NOL or net section 1256 contracts loss may affect or cause you to owe AMT. Individuals use Form 6251 to figure this tax. Estates and trusts use Schedule I (Form 1041).

See the Instructions for Form 6251 or the Instructions for Schedule I (Form 1041) for the carryback year.

Line 20—General Business Credit

Enter in the column labeled “After carryback” for each affected carryback year the total of the refigured general business credits, using Form 3800.

If an NOL or net section 1256 contracts loss carryback eliminates or reduces a general business credit in an earlier year, you may be able to carry back the released credit 1 year. See section 39 and the Instructions for Form 3800 for more details on general business credit carrybacks.

Line 21—Net Premium Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit

If you claimed a premium tax credit in the carryback year, complete a new Form 8962 using your refigured household income. Enter your refigured premium tax credit in the column labeled “After carryback” for the carryback year.

Include the child tax credits on line 21. See the return and instructions for your carryback year(s) to figure/refigure the before-carryback and after-carryback child tax credits for the carryback year(s).

Line 22—Other Credits

See your tax return for the carryback year for any additional credits such as the earned income credit, credit for child and dependent care expenses, education credits, foreign tax credit, retirement savings contributions credit, etc., that will apply in that year. If you make an entry on this line, identify the credit(s) claimed.

Line 25—Self-Employment Tax

Don’t adjust self-employment tax because of any carryback.

Line 26—Additional Medicare Tax

Don’t adjust Additional Medicare Tax because of any carryback.

Line 27—Net Investment Income Tax (NIIT)

Enter in the column labeled “After carryback” for each affected carryback year any refigured NIIT using Form 8960 for the applicable carryback year. See section 1411 and the related regulations for information on the use of an NOL for NIIT purposes.

Line 29—Other Taxes

See your tax return for the carryback year for any other taxes not mentioned above, such as recapture taxes, tax on an IRA, etc., that will apply in that year. If you make an entry on this line, identify the taxes that apply.

Line 33—Overpayment of Tax Under Section 1341(b)(1)

If you apply for a tentative refund based on an overpayment of tax under section 1341(b)(1), enter it on this line. Also, attach a computation showing the information required by Regulations section 5.6411-1(d).

Line 34—Direct Deposit

If you have access to U.S. banking services or electronic payment systems, you should use direct deposit for any refunds. Complete the direct deposit information for any refund from line(s) 32 and/or 33. You may use the Form 1045 for either or both a carry-back and/or a refund under Code section 1341(b)(1). For more information on direct deposit and available alternatives, go to IRS.gov/ModernPayments.

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