WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service will offer a free webinar to help large business taxpayers understand the Compliance Assurance Process (CAP) by discussing updates and clarifications to the program to better prepare applicants.

The CAP helps large corporate taxpayers improve federal tax compliance through real-time issue resolution tools that promote accurate tax returns and shorten the IRS examination process.

The webinar will take place from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. Those who are interested can register on the CAP Program Webinar registration page. Space is limited to the first 1,000 registrants.

In response to questions concerning the changes to the eligibility requirements for the CAP program, the IRS is providing some clarifications.

To be eligible to apply for CAP, applicants must:

• Have assets of $10 million or more,
• Be a U.S. publicly traded C-corporation with a legal requirement to prepare and submit SEC Forms 10-K, 10-Q, and 8-K or a U.S. privately held C-corporation including foreign owned.
• • S. privately held C-corporations will be required to timely submit audited financial statements prepared in accordance with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) or another permissible method, as deemed appropriate by the IRS, specific to the taxpayer applying to the CAP program on an annual basis and unaudited financial statements on a quarterly basis.
• Not be under investigation by, or in litigation with, any government agency that would limit the IRS’s access to current tax records.

As a new exception, taxpayers will be eligible for the CAP program if they have a tax return that remains open due to outstanding Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and/or Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors Act (CHIPS) tax issues.

Taxpayers may apply for the 2025 CAP program until Oct. 31, 2024. The IRS will inform applicants if they’re accepted into the program in February 2025.

To prepare new applicants for the CAP program, the IRS will assist taxpayers in meeting the eligibility requirements. Taxpayers currently under IRS examination and possibly not meeting the current eligibility criteria are encouraged to discuss their interest in CAP with their local IRS team or by sending an email to the CAP mailbox found on the CAP webpage.

Launched in 2005, CAP employs real-time issue resolution through transparent and cooperative interaction between taxpayers and the IRS to improve federal tax compliance by resolving issues prior to the filing of a tax return. To learn more, visit the CAP FAQ webpage.