An August 11, 2020 article from World Oil Magazine had the following headline: “Marathon Sets Up for $1.1 Billion Tax Refund via Coronavirus Aid Law.” * The article goes on to indicate, “That measure included a tax provision that allows companies to immediately deduct net operating losses and apply them to previous returns for five years from 2018, 2019, and 2020 – instead of only applying those deductions to future years. The benefit is supercharged because deductions taken before the 2017 tax overhaul can be claimed at the 35% corporate tax rate instead of the current 21%.” Marathon Petroleum Corporation’s June 30, 2020, 10Q states the following: “As of June 30, 2020, the
estimated cash tax refund resulting from the NOL carryback provided in the CARES Act is $1.1 billion and arises solely due to taxes paid in prior years. Absent the CARES Act, we would have recorded a deferred tax asset for the expected NOL carryforward under the currently effective federal income tax rate.”

Required:
1. Based only on the information provided above, prepare a journal entry that records any tax expense (benefit) associated with the NOL carryback.
2. Assuming a tax rate of 35% in prior years, how much pretax net operating loss did Marathon carryback to prior periods?
3. Assume now that the CARES Act was not in effect. Prepare a journal entry that records any tax expense (benefit) associated with the NOL carryforward, assuming a tax rate of 21% for current and future periods.
4. Whether Marathon could do an NOL carryback or an NOL carryforward, it would recover or avoid some taxes by utilizing the NOL. How much extra tax did it recover or avoid due to the difference in tax rates between prior years and future years?