Random Politics & Religion #02

No.

Eh. To some degree or another. Even if it's unintentionally. It's not a matter of duplicity even. Our tax code is just ***.

I don't doubt it. But it is just asking to toss up some flags.
Buying 3 computers for 2,500 and selling them for 250 would look a lot less conspicuous and would accomplish the same thing.

Exactly.

What the hell is a progressive conservative?
Those are opposite terms pretty much everywhere in the world, unlike say liberal which varies.

canadian politics are more easily understood with a frozen brain.

It's possible. However unlikely.

Hard to prove it during an audit, but most likely won't get looked at.

If it's true, then it's a valid writeoff (categorized as a Section 1245 property, so losses are considered capital subject to the limitations placed on capital losses). If it's not, then it's dishonest at best. The accountant cannot determine which is honest and which isn't, that's not our jobs.

If the accountant was the one who suggested that and it didn't happen, they would lose their license quicker than you can say tax fraud. AICPA and every state PABs do not take dishonesty lightly. Hell, CPAs have lost their licenses for drunk driving in some states, that's how serious PABs take the license.

Depending on the event, it would be more than a fine.

Sure, if you consider using deductions as evading taxes. That's the only way your can consider everyone can and does evade taxes.

Why did you take the standard/itemized deduction(s) this year? You damn tax evader!

I'll pass on your words of wisdom to the accountants, who have been doing this longer than you've been alive.

That is a lot of words to say a Canadian...

When I am not working as a NP I also work for FEMA during disasters and I buy a laptop almost every year for keeping in touch on the road and doing some side work(fema issues us a pos laptop) and I write it off every year with no problems.

I highly doubt you know of any, but sure, go ahead.

You are supposed to depreciate it on your tax return. If you use an accountant or tax software, you probably are doing that.

You can choose to depreciate it or write it off completely, it would depend upon how your income and other write-offs are structured for the year.

No sense choosing to depreciate it when writing it off gets more money back for the year, if you made too much and get stuck in a higher income bracket depreciating would be the way to go.

I wrote off Bernie Sanders do I get a tax refund ?

Nope.

A computer's estimated lifespan is over a year, therefor you have to capitalize it. If you try to write it off, and IRS catches you (again, they would have to audit you, even a desk audit would deny you the deduction), you will lose your deduction.

Unfortunately, that's not how it works.

It doesn't matter if you are a small business or a multi-national corporation, IRS doesn't allow leeway when it comes to capitalizing vs. deducting certain items. And IRS always makes an excuse for capitalizing. That's why the R&M regulations were put in place a couple of years back.

Sure, you could try to make the de minimus election, but in the case for computers, you will still lose. Computer equipment, such as software, you can make the case, but not actual computers themselves.

Tubman is a good choice, way better than Rosa Parks, about on par with Eleanor Roosevelt, I would have been fine with her too. Hamilton is the founder of our economic system, there was a big movement to keep him on the $10 and dump Jackson, I would have dumped Jackson entirely, but I guess relegating him to the back of the $20 is punishment enough.

Also it won't come out till after 2030 just because it takes a LONG time to change currency do to counterfeiting, the blue stripe on the $100 took over 10 years to implement, I remember the idea was formed in the 90s.

What Provence?

Not if you sell it at a loss.


Didn't know about.. Gee more Regulations you say..

I didn't make the computer argument, just said it was a decent example of how things basically work.

It would be the last thing I personally would use, way to easy to get noticed.

Doesn't matter.

IRS doesn't give a flying ***if you intend to sell that computer at a loss in less than a year. The purpose of purchasing that computer is to use it for greater than a year, therefor capitalize.

The only way IRS will allow a loss on a computer you purchased with the intent to sell it at a loss is if you are a company who sells computers as a sole or primary purpose of the business. Even then, you have to question your business methods if that's the case.

If that's basically how things work, then you live in a backwards society. You don't buy assets, sell them for a loss in less than a year, and expect to get rich or stay in business doing that. Hell, there are no companies out there whose business model that specifically does that, and does it often. The point of business is to make money, not create tax deductions.

And even then, in order for you to get a tax deduction, you would have to sell that computer or other fixed asset for greater than 70% of the original value as a loss in order to get a deduction (assuming it's a 5 year MACRS asset). I don't know about you, but I would consider that "liberal-type business planning" there. Only idiots would do that for a living, and even then, they wouldn't be able to do it for long, they would run out of money quicker than you can say welfare.

No, but when I say "unintentional" I'm including local sales taxes, things bought at carnivals and fairs, all kinds of ***that you don't think about where you would normally pay tax on but you just hand the vendor cash, eat your corndog and don't think twice about it.

I'm not talking major tax evasion here, just pennies.

I mean, ***, technically I evaded a piddly little local tax for like three years before finally paying it with penalties. I didn't even know it existed and the only thing my local tax office sends out are these little postcards that blend in really well with advertising postcards that get sent out en masse.

I just kept pitching them assuming they were garbage (well, assuming they were garbage that didn't matter, they're still garbage).

After going round and round with them and telling them to maybe invest two dollars in a box of envelopes, or at least paying two cents to have "IMPORTANT TAX DOCUMENT" written in a bigger font, I just paid it because I didn't *** care, it was a negligible amount of money, but it's just another one of those dumb taxes that they could easily set up to have taken out of your paycheck with the rest of your local taxes, but instead they decide to do it entirely separately for no good reason...probably exactly for the purpose of making you late and paying 3x what you were supposed to.

Umm guys .. you don't spend money on stuff just to write it off on taxes, that just costs you money in the first place. "Write off" is another one of those bad terms that gets improperly used in movies and modern entertainment. An actual "write off" is when you purchased something as capital (equipment / land / investment / ect..) but it didn't make you any money due to failure, bad planning or it not selling for the asked for price. So to recover some of your original investment you sell it for less then you bought it for and take the loss. Business's are taxed on profit not gross income. The loss from above is a "write off", meaning you it failed as revenue generation and your taking that loss as a reduction to profit, which it is. There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing this, it's just part of doing business and is a legitimate cost.

The illegal stuff happens when a business has fictitious purchases from a business they secretly own, and then later writes off those purchases as a loss. Depending on how well they can hide the true ownership it might even pass a basic audit, but nothing gets past a thorough IRS audit.

Business A buys $500,000 USD worth of fictitious computing equipment from Business B. Business B generates the shipping manifests and it gets signed. Business A then later sells those fictitious computers back to Business B at half cost ($250,000) as "used equipment" and then states it was a failed venture as the original use for the computers wasn't needed. In this manor $250K can be hidden, but an IRS audit that actually bothered to check around would discover the computers never arrived and nobody has any idea what happened to them. That would send up all sorts of red flags for them to start investigating Business B and it's relationship to Business A.

I am more in touch with BC politics than even your national politics.

I kinda forget about Manitoba too, but I am American.

They made a Broadway show about Hamilton which is the only way we can get the left to actually learn a little History. After that, he was all good with them.

Whatever kid.