Important Notice: Impact of the Federal Protecting Americans From Tax Hikes Act of 2015 on North Carolina's Corporate and Individual Income Tax Returns for Tax Year 2015
North Carolina’s corporate income tax law uses federal taxable income as the starting point in determining North Carolina taxable income. North Carolina’s individual income tax law uses federal adjusted gross income as the starting point in determining North Carolina taxable income. In both cases, the reference to federal law is to the Internal Revenue Code (“Code”) as of a certain date. Currently, that reference is to the Code as of January 1, 2015. Each year the General Assembly determines whether to update its reference to the Code. Doing so would make recent amendments to the Code applicable for North Carolina income tax purposes. In some cases, the General Assembly chooses not to follow (“decouples” from) certain amendments to federal law.