Aircraft tax question

"Mike Rapoport" wrote:
OK. I did not realize that *everything* gets added to the
basis even if it was thrown away year ago and you arn't
even selling it when you sell the airplane.) I guess it makes
some sense since the business user would have deducted
these costs over time.

"Sense" has little to do with tax law, which has to also operate
its own way for practical enforcement, and timing tax receipts
today vs. tomorrow if Congress so desires.

Say you originally bot the plane with a Loran, and it stopped
working, so you removed and tossed it. Whether business or not,
there's no accounting loss, since you can't establish the % of
purchase price which was in the Loran. So Loran stays forever in
the basis.

However, if you bot plane and then added Loran for $1500, and sold
it for $100, then you have a business loss if this separate Loran
asset was not fully depreciated. Otherwise a taxable ordinary
gain. For a personal plane, you similarly take the Loran back out
of basis, but with no tax effect ever as to the $100.

However, if the Loran in a personal plane which you installed
stopped working, and you ripped it out and tossed, you're actually
supposed to take it back out of basis (purchase price of plane).

Back to if Loran was in the plane when you bot it, but you sold
working Loran for $100. Whether biz or not, just subtract $100
from basis of plane which forever includes the Loran. It really
all follows a few simple rules.

Fred F.