Richmond, Va.-based Genworth Financial announced that based on recently enacted legislation, it is expecting to recover nearly $85 million in federal tax refunds.

The company said in a statement that the exact amount of the recovery will be determined by results for the remainder of this year, with any statutory tax benefit being recorded in the fourth quarter.

The legislation expands the carryback period for certain net operating losses to five years from two years. Genworth said “a significant portion” of this recovery will benefit the U.S. mortgage insurance business and is expected to decrease the regulatory risk-to-capital ratio by 0.5 to 1.0 points by the end of this year.

The company added that the legislative changes are not expected to affect its profit or loss for U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles purposes.

The anticipated tax refund is the latest piece of good financial news for Genworth, which recently announced a profit of $19 million for the third quarter of 2009, compared with a $258 million loss for the same period last year.