The Tax Questions Blog

Archive for April, 2009

Question: How do you determine the tax basis in calculating capital gain when selling furniture or household goods?

For people who sell household goods at auction or an ebay, for example, how do you calculate the basis to determine your gain.? You may have had these items for decades, or may have gotten them as gifts years ago. How can you determine if you made a taxable profit which needs to be declared? If you can't produce a receipt for the purchase, do you have to count the entire sale price as a gain?

Answer: The tax basis of the item is the fair market value at the time you acquired it. Modest gifts are not taxable.

If you have no receipts, make your best guess as to when the item was acquired and what its fair market value was when you acquired it, then date and sign it and keep that paper with a copy of your filed tax forms.

Tax Tips for Small Businesses

Starting a small business involves a host of little details -- some more complicated than others. One of the most complex involves how your business will be taxed.

MeltDown #374 EMERGENCY ECONOMIC STABILIZATION

Question: What would this guy do if they shorted him a nugget at McDonald's?

Click on the link below,

http://youtube.com/watch?v=P0ucSn4DJl4

and,

Would he audit their as@es and tax them for the nugget they shorted him and add all these fees and penalties with it and bring up that resturants past mistakes with their taxes, charge them fees and penalties for those past mistakes and after he's all done with them, that McDonald's will have to file for bankruptcy and be out of business all because of this man?

I bet that's what would happen!
LOL!

What do YOU think he'd do?
Give me something creative and funny.
BTW, I think he'd give them a few bodyslams, clotheslines, and have the rest of "Money Inc." finish the job off with everyone working at that McDonald's.

LOL!

Answer: In all seriousness, an IRS agent would lose their job in a heartbeat if they tried to audit somebody for being shorted a nugget.

But just to be funny, that agent could just whip out their pocket commission and fool some snotty fast food punk into getting as much free food as they wanted!

AdweekMedia Forecast 2010

The tricky thing about any sort of forecast for 2010 is that even though the recession appears, at least on paper, to be near an end, this was no ordinary recession for the media business.

How to Avoid an IRS Tax Audit : Electronic Vs. Paper Tax Filing

Question: If an ebay seller has shipping profits, is that taxable?

Answer: Of course it is. But make sure that ebay seller is taking expenses such as:

Cost of shipping
Milage to and from the shipping location
Shipping Materials (boxes, tape, etc.)

Pennsylvania Taps Debt Market as Gambling Vote Bridges Deficit

Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Pennsylvania and Arizona lead state and local governments set to borrow about $13 billion in the U.S. municipal bond market this week, and the increased supply may offer some bargains for investors.