Leaderboard

Thanks for the replies. I was able to find the Prentice Hall 2013 edition for $.75 plus $3.99 shipping on Amazon. What a deal!!!

Tom, Here is a couple ideas for Ya.....

If you like Gail's idea, look for a used copy on Amazon or Abebooks - you can get used textbooks for way under list from either of those. Plus the big thing with S-corps is dealing with shareholder issues (basis, loans, etc) and those don't change year to year. So buy a prior-year version even cheaper to learn the AAA/OAA-basis-loans-benefits parts.

Quick update on this. The problem continued to happen and even got worse. I wrapped up a return last night, saved it and closed ATX. When I opened ATX this morning the return was blank. I called ATX support. It is apparently a known issue following 14.7 updates. She renamed a hidden file deep in my Windows folder forcing ATX to recreate that file. She said that would take care of it. I asked what specifically was wrong. All she would say is, "It's just a file that got corrupted. We made it create a new file so that should take care of it." I tried to press but that's all I got out of her. So far, I'm half way through re-entering the data and it appears to be working ok. By the way, when I first called she asked if I had upgraded to Win10. When I said no she replied with an enthusiastic, "Good!" Makes me wonder if Win10 isn't playing nicely with ATX software.

I've been using the PPC Deskbooks. PPC (Practitioners Publishing Co) is now part of Thomson Reuters but they still refer to them as PPC Deskbooks. They have separate ones called 1040 Deskbook, 1120, 1120S, 1065, 1041, etc. I receive them in CD format. I think they have an online format but you can check it out. They are annual subscriptions. Should be able to search Thomson Reuters website.

My favorite text book way back when was Prentice Hall's Federal Taxation XXXX Comprehensive where XXXX is the year. I don't know if they are still as good, and I think that you can buy just the Corporation part instead of the Comprehensive. This is what my college course in Advanced Taxation used, and I thought that it had really good information about basis, and depreciation, and AAA, etc. But being a college textbook, it ain't cheap. The comprehensive edition has individual taxation for the first half of the book, and corporate for the second half. I think the college I went to used the book for both Basic Taxation and Advanced Taxation, but I tested out of basic and only took Advanced so I am not familiar with the first half of the book. And you might check if there is a college near you that offers accounting majors to see if they have an advanced taxation course that covers corps and partnerships - if you choose to take the course, you would probably need to buy a specific text book. Good luck. I hope some other people share their suggestions - I might want to update my textbook!

This one is a doozy, and this client's taxes will probably be filed late as there are too many complications with this and other issues to have it all properly done by Thursday. Client is buying two condos for the purpose of renting them out. However. (1) They are not yet built (but are being built), (2) they are in Dubai, and (3) since he is not a citizen of Dubai he can't get a mortgage, so (4) he is paying in cash, in chunks, as milestones are reached. How on God's green earth do I treat these acquisition costs for US tax purposes? Are any of them even worth considering until the units are completed? As far as I can tell, none of them are start up costs, as they aren't for market research or utilities or advertising or any of the standard categories. (Will have to look at insurance; it's possible he is carrying some but the construction company's coverage likely covers in-process construction.) Eep. Any/all help greatly appreciated!

Maybe I am missing something, but if they are rental units the basis will be depreciated beginning when the assets are placed in service, right? Does having them out of the country complicate this? So unless you are doing cost segregation, this seems pretty straight forward compared to some things. Or like I said, I missed something. This has been a heckuva October.

I am about 2 hours due east of Cleveland but (due to the landscape of Lake Erie) am further inland and higher elevated. Sunday morning it was 33 when I got up and we had our first light frost of this season. But as Catherine points out, the Cleveland weather, because of the lake effect, will be more moderate while you are there. I would suggest bringing an umbrella. In the for what it is worth department, I was born and raised in a town 55 miles east of Cleveland and just as close to the lake as Cleveland. I remember snow as high as the power lines so make sure you get out of town before early-December.

The other thing that popped into my head is the holding period of constructed assets, but unless a unit is sold within one year after completion, you won't have any complication of trying to break down a possible sale transaction into its short- and long-term components.

Well, since he's paying in cash, at least you avoid capitalized interest. The basis calcs might not be that hard if your client has a contract with the builder for a set price. There can be modifications to it as work progresses, so ask if any changes to the original contract have been made. As you say, the price is being paid in installments as the project is completed, so maybe all you have to do is add up the payments to make sure it is in line with the final price. Are there other expenses being paid on the property other than payments toward the construction? Is your complication that this a large enough project that you are considering cost segregation of the building's components?

There sure is *something* not playing nicely with your ATX software. It might be the software playing not-nicely with itself (with apologies for the rude allusion).

Not from Ohio but I am from the northeast. It's too early to worry about lake effect snow. Lake effect rain, perhaps. The extended forecast for next week in Cleveland shows highs in the 50's and 60's and lows from about 40 to mid-50's. Mid-winter weather for you... mild fall for us. Wool sportcoat should do you well, perhaps with a sweater to put under it if you go out in the evening. I'll wave from Massachusetts - wave back! (I know, we won't be able to see each other, but still.)

Are the capital gains treated as long term or short term?

It is return of capital even if E&P is negative. You have been calculating E&P every year, haven't you? It is dividends up to the extent of current E&P. Edit: If it exceeds his basis, it becomes a capital gain. http://thismatter.com/money/tax/corporate-distributions.htm