Business Provisions
The 2009 WHBAA contains several tax provisions with respect to businesses. Most importantly, it extends the NOL carryback period. You will recall that the 2009 ARRA extended the NOL carryback period from two to up to five years for tax years beginning in or ending in 2008. However, the 2009 ARRA extension only applied to small businesses with gross receipts of $15 million or less. The 2009 WHBAA allows all businesses to carryback an NOL for up to five years for losses incurred either in 2008 or 2009, but not both (at the election of the taxpayer). Businesses are able to offset 50% of the available income from the fifth taxable year preceding the loss, and 100% of all income in the remaining four carryback years.
However, eligible small businesses that previously elected (or will elect) to carry back an “applicable 2008 NOL” (which could be for a 2008 or 2009 loss year) under 2009 ARRA are allowed to elect to carry back losses from 2009 or 2010. Further, these eligible small businesses are not limited to the 50% limitation applicable to the fifth taxable year preceding the loss for the “applicable 2008 NOL.”

Provisions to pay for the act
To pay for the Act, the 2009 WHBAA:
(1) increases the penalties for failure to file a partnership or S Corporation return from $89 to $195 per partner/shareholder;
(2) delays by six-years the implementation of a tax break on worldwide interest allocation slated for use by multinational firms;
(3) increases corporate estimated tax payments due July-September 2014 by 33 percentage points for businesses with assets of at least $1 billion; and
(4) requires tax return preparers who expect to file 10 or more returns to use electronic filing on the individual income tax returns they prepare, but would not require that taxpayers also e-pay.