Does an Adjusted Trial Balance for a Corporate Tax Return have Closing Entries?

Does an Adjusted Trial Balance for a Corporate Tax Return have Closing Entries?
I'm a brand-new-to-the-field accountant (I graduate in a few weeks- yay!) and I've been assigned my first corporate tax return. The only problem, I don't fully trust that the person who prepared the return last year did it correctly, and now I'm getting caught up on a lot of things. Should have the prior year nominal account balances been closed out? It was my understanding that after the return was prepared, then all the nominal accounts should have been closed to zero. They were not, and the person is telling me to carry forward the balances. Is the real-world practice of accounting all that different from the theories I learned in college? I learned that the only balances you roll forward are basically confined to those accounts appearing on the Balance Sheet, and the Should I first do all the closing JE's from the prior year, and then move forward? Any advice from practicing accountants out there? I don't want to approach a higher-level person at the firm until I have some solid questions to ask them. Please help!! I'm already over-budget on the time for this return, but am hoping they understand because it's my first one ever-- and I am NOT billing the client for my own inexperience. The client was given AJE's, which they did input into their own books; none of the AJE's they were given closed out the nominal accounts. Thank you for pointing out that I didn't put in that piece of information. That's another reason I don't want to just follow what was done last year-- I don't trust that it was done 100% correctly, but since it's my first return in the real world, I lack the confidence to deviate from what I was told to do, which was "follow as much of the prior year's work as possible".