Depreciable Life-Mind is Blank

[JG EA]

A mind is a horrible thing...

Wife is in kitchen fixing dinner for her husband and quest.

She should not have invited a quest.

[Gretel]

Bees

Well, I didn't purchase my mind and I didn't create it. I got it as a gift. So now we are taking about gift tax that should have been paid long time ago. Of course, this gift has a big dollar value to it.

But then, when the mind is blank, could I insist on having received a worthless gift or did I just misuse my mind and now I have to go to prison?

[Donanita]

Exchange

If my mind is a gift can I then exchange it for one that works when it goes blank.

[Bird Legs]

Exchange

Only problem with the exchange is that under the 1031 tax free exchange rule, the new brain will take the same basis as the old one.

[Bees Knees]

Only problem with the exchange is that under the 1031 tax free exchange rule, the new brain will take the same basis as the old one.

Only if it is business or investment property. If the brain being traded is personal use, section 1031 treatment doesn't apply, and so you would have to pay tax on the appreciation people have for your brain. Since a brain transplant would probably be considered some kind of medical procedure, the expense would be a Schedule A deduction, not deductible on Schedule C. Thus, it is a personal transaction and not a business transaction.

[jainen]

Section 1033

In my case, it's a total catastrophe and so I get to use Section 1033.

[Bird Legs]

Sched. A or C

Everyone knows that all the brains represented on this board are used for business 100%
of the time because of the cost of the investments we have made in them. Therefore, this
makes the brain investment property. Just because the brain has been depleted doesn't
matter. The drained basis of my brain is zero and if it is traded for another drained brain
will still have zero basis. Still investment property though.

[jainen]

profit motive

Maybe for you. Investment implies an expectation of long term market appreciation, and my long-term prospects are dim. And if I had any profit motive, I wouldn't be wasting all my time on this board!

[Armando Beaujolais]

Only if it is business or investment property. If the brain being traded is personal use, section 1031 treatment doesn't apply, and so you would have to pay tax on the appreciation people have for your brain. Since a brain transplant would probably be considered some kind of medical procedure, the expense would be a Schedule A deduction, not deductible on Schedule C. Thus, it is a personal transaction and not a business transaction.

I disagree.

It's clear that the replacement would be a structural component, prolonging the life of the asset or adapting it to a different use. The cost of freight in and installation would be a capital expense, depreciable.

[Lion]

Just Posting

Figure I'd better post now while I have a minute or I'll never get promoted to Senior Member or whatever grand puhpa comes next. Especially, as my mind drains and I have to research renovations. If I spend money taking courses, does that increase the value of my asset? Do I need to start depreciating that incremental change? Or, did we decide that it's really depletion and not depreciation? I can't comment when I can't see the thread upon which I am trying to comment. Is there a way to do that, see both on my computer screen. And, don't get me started on computers. I really need to get a new computer and a faster ISP before the end of the year.