What is one of the main requirements for filing a consolidated tax return?

The requirement that corporations must have common ownership and control is fundamental to filing a consolidated tax return. This stipulation ensures that the corporations involved share a significant level of financial and managerial interdependence, which is essential for accurate tax reporting and avoidance of economic double taxation. In a consolidated return, the income, deductions, and credits of affiliated corporations are combined, reflecting their interconnected operations and financial positions.

In practice, this common ownership typically means that one corporation holds a controlling interest in the others, often defined as owning more than 80% of the other corporation's stock. This allows for the tax benefits of netting profits and losses across the affiliated entities, simplifying tax reporting and enabling tax liabilities to be assessed on a group basis rather than on an individual entity basis.

The other options do not capture this crucial requirement. For instance, filing separately does not meet the essence of consolidation, and operating in multiple states or being publicly traded does not fundamentally pertain to the requirement of common ownership and control for a consolidated return.