Capitalized Costs & Depreciation - Tax Staff Essentials

Overview

Depreciation, amortization, and capitalization all play an essential role in accurate tax reporting.

Highlights

Tax basis of property acquisitions

Initial basis of property acquired in an exchange transaction

Materials, supplies, repairs and improvements

Accounting method changes

Depreciation: MACRS, Section 179 and bonus

Intangible assets and amortization

Organization and start-up costs

Research and experimental expenditures

Prerequisites

None

Designed For

Public accounting staff and senior associates

Tax professionals in company finance or tax departments

Objectives

Recall the initial tax basis of business property, including those purchased and acquired in an exchange transaction.
Identify the tax basis of self-constructed assets.
Distinguish between deductible repairs and capitalized improvements.
Recall the tax treatment of expenditures for materials and supplies.
Recall the fundamentals of modified accelerated cost recovery system (MACRS) depreciation.
Recognize which assets are considered listed property.
Identify intangibles that are subject to capitalization and amortization.

Credits

Level

Code

Vendor

Fields of Study

Leader(s):

Shelley Rhoades-Catanach, AICPA

Leader Bios

Shelley Rhoades-Catanach, AICPA

Dr. Rhoades-Catanach joined the accounting faculty of Villanova University in 1998, and teaches a variety of tax courses in the undergraduate, Master of Taxation, MBA and Master of Accounting Programs. Prior to joining Villanova, she taught at Washington University in St. Louis and the Darden Graduate School at the University of Virginia. She has also served as a visiting faculty member in the MBA program at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France. Before entering academia, Dr. Rhoades-Catanach spent seven years at Arthur Andersen as a tax professional.

Dr. Rhoades-Catanach’s research focuses on the impact of taxes on strategic decision making in such areas as tax reporting and auditing, changes in tax policy, taxpayer rights legislation, and the impact of state taxation on firm location and investment decisions. She is the co-author of two textbooks, Principles of Taxation for Business and Investment Planning and Advanced Strategies in Taxation and has published numerous articles in journals such as The Accounting Review, Research in Accounting Studies, Journal of the American Taxation Association, and Issues in Accounting Education.

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