2020 Conformity Notice

Each year the Arizona legislature considers whether to amend Arizona Revised Statutes § 43-105 to conform to changes made to the Internal Revenue Code during the prior year. On April 14, 2021, Governor Ducey signed Senate Bill 1752, which conformed to the definition of federal adjusted gross income (federal taxable income, for corporations), including federal changes made during 2020 as well as through the 2021 American Rescue Plan. The bill does not add any new non-conformity additions or subtractions.  However, additions and subtractions created for prior non-conformity adjustments for issues such as bonus depreciation are still in place.

The instructions issued with the 2020 Arizona tax returns are correct.  For a complete list of the additions and subtractions that apply to 2020, see the 2020 instructions for Arizona Form 140 (individuals) or Arizona Form 120 (corporations).  The statutory additions can be found in A.R.S. § 43-1021 (A.R.S. § 43-1121 for corporations) and the subtractions in A.R.S. § 43-1022 (A.R.S. § 43-1122 for corporations).

Please Note:

2020 conformity includes the federal 2020 Cares Act, the federal Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, and the federal American Rescue Plan of 2021.

Taxpayers who previously amended their prior-year federal returns to claim net operating losses, but were waiting to amend their Arizona returns until conformity was resolved, may now amend their Arizona returns. Taxpayers who filed amended Arizona returns assuming Arizona would conform and had their net operating loss refunds held in abeyance by the Department should now expect those returns to be processed.

The American Rescue Plan of 2021 included a subtraction from federal adjusted gross income of up to $10,200 in unemployment income per person for the 2020 tax year.  Taxpayers who filed their original federal return for tax year 2020 claiming the subtraction should file their Arizona return starting with federal adjusted gross income from their federal return.  Taxpayers that did not take the subtraction on their original federal return and are waiting for the IRS to adjust their return to remove the subtraction should wait to amend their Arizona return.  The Department is analyzing this situation and will post additional guidance soon.

Friday, April 16, 2021