Do Federal NOLs follow the person or the company?

[username333]

I had a single-member LLC in CA which had some NOLs.
I moved out of CA and shut down the LLC.
As far as I can tell, my state NOLs are essentially terminated/ no longer pertain to anything - whether that's bc I have no more income in that or bc the LLC is closed, I'm not sure.
My question is if my Federal NOLs would still be available to use against my current (non-CA) W2 income? Are those NOLs attributed to me or the shut-down LLC?

TIA!

[AmeliesUncle]

Was this business reported on Schedule C of your personal tax return (it was a Single Member LLC that did NOT elect to be taxed as a corporation)?

If so, if the business had a loss, that loss offsets other income on your tax return.  If there was no other income (or not enough for the loss to offset), that creates a Net Operating Loss (NOL).  

In answer to your question, the business had a "loss" (negative income for the business), but YOU had the NOL (negative income on the entire tax return).  That means it follows you, regardless if the business exists or not.

[username333]

Thanks your reply, Unc.

Yes, the business was reported on my Sch C and did NOT elect to be taxed as a corp.

If I may, just to be clear:  I can still use my Federal NOLs to offset future Federal income and the CA NOLs, unless I have CA income, are "retired." Is that accurate?

[Mike9241]

in the case losses from schedule C, NOL carryforwards are computed at the individual level not the business.   for example, if you had $30K of wages and $30K of schedule C losses, there would be no NOL to carryforward.

put simply an NOL carryforward would exist when there is an excess of business losses over business income reduced by the excess, if any, of nonbusiness income over nonbusiness losses and deductions. 

Turbotax does not compute NOL c/f  use PUB 536 worksheet 1 or form 1045 schedule A to figure your NOL. 

also, if an NOL exists it is not reported on schedule C rather it is shown on schedule 1 line 8a (2023)

[username333]

Thanks for this Mike. I'm pretty familiar with NOLs and the forms.

The question was on if I could continue to use my Federal NOLs against future Federal income after having moved to a new state and shut down the SMLLC.
Further research seems to say "Yes - the NOLs stay with the person and not the LLC, at least for Federal rules and income; for CA income, since I will have none and the LLC is no more, the CA NOL would be lost and no further recalculations are required."