Federal Taxation Essay

D. Dale Bandy is Professor Emeritus in the School of Accounting at the University of Central Florida. He received a B.S. from the University of Tulsa, an M.B.A. from the University of Arkansas, and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. He helped to establish the Master of Science in Taxation programs at the University of Central Florida and California State University, Fullerton, where he previously taught. In 1985, he was selected by the California Society of Certified Public Accountants as the Accounting Educator of the year. Professor Bandy has published 8 books and more than 30 articles in accounting and taxation. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Taxation, the Journal of Accountancy, Advances in Taxation, the Tax Adviser, The CPA Journal, Management Accounting, and a number of other journals. N. Allen Ford is the Larry D. Homer/KPMG Peat Marwick Distinguished Teaching Professor of Professional Accounting at the University of Kansas. He received an undergraduate degree from Centenary College in Shreveport, Louisiana, and both the M.B.A. and Ph.D. in Business from the University of Arkansas. He has published over 40 articles related to taxation, financial accounting, and accounting education in journals such as The Accounting Review, The Journal of the American Taxation Association, and The Journal of Taxation. He served as president of the American Taxation Association in 1979–80. Professor Ford has received numerous teaching awards at the college and university levels. In 1993, he received the Byron T. Shutz Award for Distinguished Teaching in Economics and Business. In 1996 he received the Ray M. Sommerfeld Outstanding Tax Educator Award, which is jointly sponsored by the American Taxation Association and Ernst & Young and in 1998 he received the Kansas Society of CPAs Outstanding Education Award. Robert L. Gardner is the Robert J. Smith Professor of Accounting in the School of Accountancy at Brigham Young University (BYU). He received a B.S. and M.B.A. from the University of Utah and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. He has authored or coauthored two books and over 25 articles in journals such as The Tax Advisor, Journal of Corporate Taxation, Journal of Real Estate Taxation, Journal of Accounting Education, Journal of Taxation of S Corporations, and the International Tax Journal. Professor Gardner has received several teaching awards. In 2001, he received the Outstanding Faculty Award in the Marriott School of Management at BYU. He has served on the Board of Trustees of the American Taxation Association and served as President of the ATA in 1999–2000. Richard J. Joseph is the Provost of Hult International Business School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is a current member of the Hult Accounting Faculty and a former member of the tax faculty of The University of Texas at Austin. A graduate magna cum laude of Harvard College (B.A.), Oxford University (M.Litt.), and The University of Texas at Austin School of Law (J.D.), he has taught individual, corporate, international, state and local taxation, tax research methods, and the fundamentals of financial and managerial accounting. Before embarking on his academic career, Provost Joseph worked as an investment banker and securities trader on Wall Street and as a mergers and acquisitions lawyer in Texas. He is co-editor of the Oxford Handbook on Mergers and Acquisitions and has written numerous commentaries in the Financial Times, The Christian Science Monitor, Tax Notes, and Tax Notes International. His book, The Origins of the American Income Tax, explores the original intent, rationale, and effect of the early American income tax. LeAnn Luna is an Associate Professor of Accounting at the University of Tennessee. She is a C.P.A. and holds an undergraduate degree from Southern Methodist University, a M.T. from th e University of Denver College of Law, and a Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee. She has taught introductory taxation, corporate and partnership taxation, tax research, and professional standards. Professor Luna also holds a joint appointment with the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Tennessee, where she interacts frequently with state policymakers on a variety of policy related issues. She has published articles in the National Tax Journal, The Journal of the American Taxation Association, Tax Adviser, State Tax Notes, and a number of other journals. xii About the Authors ââ€" ¼ Individuals xiii Timothy J. Rupert is a Professor and the Golemme Administrative Chair in the College of Business Administration at Northeastern University. He received his B.S. in Accounting and his Master of Taxation from the University of Akron. He also earned his Ph.D. from Penn State University. Professor Rupert’s research has been published in such journals as The Journal of the American Taxation Association, Behavioral Research in Accounting, Advances in Taxation, Applied Cognitive Psychology, Advances in Accounting Education and Journal of Accounting Education. He is currently the co-editor of Advances in Accounting Education. In 2010, he received the Outstanding Educator Award from the Massachusetts Society of CPAs. He has also received the University’s Excellence in Teaching Award and the College of Business Administration’s Best Teacher of the Year award multiple times. He is active in the American Accounting Association and the American Taxation Association (ATA) and has served as the vice president and secretary of the ATA. Charlene Henderson is a member of the faculty in the Adkerson School of Accountancy at Mississippi State University. She earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees in accounting at Mississippi State University. After working in public and private accounting, she completed the doctoral program at Arizona State University. Her teaching and research interests include both tax and financial accounting. Her research has appeared in several journals, including Journal of the American Taxation Association, Journal of Accounting Auditing and Finance, and Journal of Business Finance and Accounting. Michael S. Schadewald, Ph.D., CPA, is on the faculty of the University of WisconsinMilwaukee where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in business taxation. A graduate of the University of Minnesota, Professor Schadewald is a co-author of several books on multistate and international taxation and has published more than 40 articles in academic and professional journals, including The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, Contemporary Accounting Research, The Journal of the American Taxation Association, CPA Journal, Journal of Taxation, and The Tax Adviser. Professor Schadewald also has served on the editorial boards of The Journal of the American Taxation Association, Journal of State Taxation, International Tax Journal, The International Journal of Accounting, Issues in Accounting Education, and Journal of Accounting Education. PR E F A C E Why is the Pope/Anderson series the best choice for you and your students? The Pope/Anderson 2013 Series in Federal Taxation is appropriate for use in any first course in federal taxation, and comes in a choice of three volumes: Federal Taxation 2013: Individuals Federal Taxation 2013: Corporations, Partnerships, Estates & Trusts (the companion book to Individuals) Federal Taxation 2013: Comprehensive (includes 29 chapters; 14 chapters from Individuals and 15 chapters from Corporations) ** For a customized edition of any of the chapters for these texts, contact your Pearson representative and they can create a custom text for you. †¢ The Corporations, Partnerships, Estates & Trusts and Comprehensive volumes contain three comprehensive tax return problems whose data change with each edition, thereby keeping the problems fresh. Problem C:3-66 contains the comprehensive corporate tax return, Problem C:9-58 contains the comprehensive partnership tax return, and Problem C:11-64 contains the comprehensive S corporation tax return, which is based on the same facts as Problem C:9-58 so that students can compare the returns for these two entities. †¢ The Corporations, Partnerships, Estates & Trusts and Comprehensive volumes contain sections called Financial Statement Implications, which discuss the implications of Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) 740. The main discussion of accounting for income taxes appears in Chapter C:3. The financial statement implications of other transactions appear in Chapters C:5, C:7, C:8, and C:16 (Corporations volume only). We want to stress that all entities are covered in the Individuals volume although the treatment is often briefer than in the Corporations and Comprehensive volumes. The Individuals volume, therefore, is appropriate for colleges and universities that req uire only one semester of taxation as well as those that require more than one semester of taxation. Further, this volume adapts the suggestions of the Model Tax Curriculum as promulgated by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. What’s New to this Edition? Individuals †¢ Complete integration of the new laws contained in the Temporary Payroll Tax Cut Continuation Act of 2011. †¢ Complete updating of all significant court cases and IRS rulings and procedures during 2011. †¢ Discussion of the extension of many itemized deductions through 2011 or 2012. †¢ Discussion of all sunset provisions applicable after December 31, 2011 and December 31, 2012. †¢ All tax rates schedules have been updated to reflect the rates and inflation adjustments for 2012. †¢ Thorough revision and update of all homework questions and problems. †¢ Whenever new updates become available, they will be accessible via MyAccountingLab. Corporations †¢ The comprehensive corporate tax return, Problem C:3-66, has all new numbers for the 2011 forms. †¢ The comprehensive partnership tax return, Problem C:9-58, has all new numbers for the 2011 forms. †¢ The comprehensive S corporation tax return, Problem C:11-64, has all new numbers for the 2011 forms. †¢ Changes affecting 2012 tax law, including inflation adjustments, have been incorporated into the text where appropriate. †¢ All tax rate schedules have been updated to reflect the rates and inflation adjustments for 2012. †¢ Whenever new updates become available, they will be accessible via MyAccountingLab. Preface ââ€" ¼ Individuals xv MyAccountingLab ® is web-based, tutorial and assessment software for accounting that not only gives students more â€Å"I Get It† moments, but gives instructors the flexibility to make technology an integral part of their course. It also is an excellent supplementary resource for students. To register, go to http://pearsonmylabandmastering.com. For Instructors MyAccountingLab provides instructors with a rich and flexible set of course materials, along with course-management tools that make it easy to deliver all or a portion of your course online. †¢ Powerful Homework and Test Manager Create, import, and manage online homework and media assignments, quizzes, and tests. Create assignments from online questions directly correlated to this and other textbooks. Homework questions include â€Å"Help Me Solve This† guided solutions to help students understand and master concepts. You can choose from a wide range of assignment options, including time limits, proctoring, and maximum number of attempts allowed. In addition, you can create your own questions—or copy and edit ours—to customize your students’ learning path. †¢ Comprehensive Gradebook Tracking MyAccountingLab’s online gradebook automatically tracks your students’ results on tests, homework, and tutorials and gives you control over managing results and calculating grades. All MyAccountingLab grades can be exported to a spreadsheet program, such as Microsoft ® Excel. The MyAccountingLab Gradebook provides a number of student data views and gives you the flexibility to weight assignments, select which attempts to include when calculating scores, and omit or delete results for individual assignments. †¢ Department-Wide Solutions Get help managing multiple sections and working with Teaching Assistants using MyAccountingLab Coordinator Courses. After your MyAccountingLab course is set up, it can be copied to create sections or â€Å"member courses.† Changes to the Coordinator Course flow down to all members, so changes only need to be made once. We will add the most current tax information to MyAccountingLab as it becomes available. For Students MyAccountingLab provides students with a personalized interactive learning environment, where they can learn at their own pace and measure their progress. †¢ Interactive Tutorial Exercises MyAccountingLab’s homework and practice questions are correlated to the textbook, and â€Å"similar to† versions regenerate algorithmically to give students unlimited opportunity for practice and mastery. Questions offer helpful feedback when students enter incorrect answers, and they include â€Å"Help Me Solve This† guided solutions as well as other learning aids for extra help when students need it. †¢ Study Plan for Self-Paced Learning MyAccountingLab’s study plan helps students monitor their own progress, letting them see at a glance exactly which topics they need to practice. MyAccountingLab generates a personalized study plan for each student based on his or her test results, and the study plan links directly to interactive, tutorial exercises for topics the student hasn’t yet mastered. Students can regenerate these exercises with new values for unlimited practice, and the exercises include guided solutions and multimedia learning aids to give students the extra help they need. View a guided tour of MyAccountingLab at http://www.myaccountinglab.com/support/tours. xvi Individuals ââ€" ¼ Preface Strong Pedagogical Aids †¢ Appropriate blend of technical content of the tax law with a high level of readability for students. †¢ Focused on enabling students to apply tax principles within the chapter to real-life situations. What Would You Do in This Situation? Unique to the Pope/Anderson series, these boxes place students in a decision-making role. The boxes include many current controversies that are as yet unresolved or are currently being considered by the courts. These boxes make extensive use of Ethical Material as they represent choices that may put the practitioner at odds with the client. Stop & Think These â€Å"speed bumps† encourage students to pause and apply what they have just learned. Solutions for each issue are provided in the box. Ethical Point These comments provide the ethical implications of material discussed in the adjoining text. Apply what they have just learned. Tax Strategy Tip These comments suggest tax planning ideas related to material in the adjoining text. Program Components Materials for the instructor may be accessed at the Instructor’s Resource Center (IRC) online, located at www.pearsonhighered.com/phtax or within the Instructor Resource section of MyAccountingLab. You may contact your Pearson representative for assistance with the registration process. †¢ TaxACT 2011 Software: Available on CD to be packaged with Individuals and Comprehensive Texts: This user-friendly tax preparation program includes more than 80 tax forms, schedules, and worksheets. TaxACT calculates returns and alerts the user to possible errors or entries. †¢ Instructor’s Resource Manual: Contains sample syllabi, instructor outlines, and information regarding problem areas for students. It also contains solutions to the tax form/tax return preparation problems. In addition to being available electronically on the IRC online, it also is available in hardcopy. †¢ Solutions Manual: Contains solutions to discussion questions, problems, and comprehensive and tax strategy problems. It also contains all solutions to the case study problems, research problems, and â€Å"What Would You Do in This Situation?† boxes. In addition to being available electronically on the IRC online, it is also available in hardcopy. †¢ Test Item File: Offers a wealth of true/false, multiple-choice, and calculative problems. A computerized program is available to adopters. †¢ PowerPoint Slides: Include over 300 full-color electronic transparencies available for Individuals and Corporations. Acknowledgments Adopters will notice that John L. Kramer’s name does not appear on the 2013 edition as he has officially retired from the textbook. Jack was one of the founders and original editors of the Prentice-Hall Federal Taxation series, and the current editors and authors wish to thank him for his outstanding contributions over the years to this textbook and to tax education in general. Our policy is to provide annual editions and to prepare timely updated supplements when major tax revisions occur. We are most appreciative of the suggestions made by outside reviewers because these extensive review procedures have been valuable to the authors and editors during the revision process. We also are grateful to the various graduate assistants, doctoral students, and colleagues who have reviewed the text and supplementary materials and checked solutions to maintain a high level of technical accuracy. In particular, we would like to acknowledge the following colleagues who assisted in the preparation of supplemental materials for this text: Ann Burstein Cohen SUNY at Buffalo Caroline Strobel University of South Carolina Craig J. Langstraat University of Memphis Kate Demarest Carroll Community College Richard Newmark University of Northern Colorado In addition, we want to thank Myron S. Scholes, Mark A. Wolfson, Merle Erickson, Edward L. Maydew, and Terry Shevlin for allowing us to use the model discussed in their text, Taxes and Business Strategy: A Planning Approach, as the basis for material in Chapter I:18. Please send any comments to Kenneth E. Anderson or Thomas R. Pope. TAX RATE SCHEDULES INDIVIDUAL TAXPAYERS Single [ §1(c)]: If taxable income is: The tax is: Not over $8,700 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10% of taxable income. Over $8,700 but not over $35,350 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $870.00, plus 15% of the excess over $8,700. Over $35,350 but not over $85,650 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $4,867.50, plus 25% of the excess over $35,350. Over $85,650 but not over $178,650 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $17,442.50, plus 28% of the excess over $85,650. Over $178,650 but not over $388,350 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $43,482.50, plus 33% of the excess over $178,650. Over $388,350 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $112,683.50, plus 35% of the excess over $388,350. Head of Household [ §1(b)]: If taxable income is: The tax is: Not over $12,400 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10% of taxable income. Over $12,400 but not over $47,350 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,240.00, plus 15% of the exce ss over $12,400. Over $47,350 but not over $122,300 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $6,482.50, plus 25% of the excess over $47,350. Over $122,300 but not over $198,050 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $25,220.00, plus 28% of the excess over $122,300. Over $198,050 but not over $388,350 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $46,430.00, plus 33% of the excess over $198,050. Over $388,350 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $109,229.00, plus 35% of the excess over $388,350. Married, Filing Joint and Surviving Spouse [ §1(a)]: If taxable income is: The tax is: Not over $17,400 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10% of taxable income. Over $17,400 but not over $70,700 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,740.00, plus 15% of the excess over $17,400. Over $70,700 but not over $142,700 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $9,735.00, plus 25% of the excess over $70,700. Over $142,700 but not over $217,450 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $27,735.00, plus 28% of the excess over $142,700. Over $217,450 but not over $388,350 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $48,665.00, plus 33% of the excess over $217,450. Over $388,350 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $105,062.00, plus 35% of the excess over $388,350. Married, Filing Separate [ §1(d)]: If taxable income is: The tax is: Not over $8,700 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10% of taxable income. Over $8,700 but not over $35,350 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $870.00, plus 15% of the excess over $8,700. Over $35,350 but not over $71,350 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $4,867.50, plus 25% of the excess over $35,350. Over $71,350 but not over $108,725 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $13,867.50, plus 28% of the excess over $71,350. Over $108,725 but not over $194,175 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $24,332.50, plus 33% of the excess over $108,725. Over $194,175 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $52,531.00, plus 35% of the excess over $194,175.