Question

Western Bank & Trust purchased land and a building for the lump sum of $3 million dollars. To get the maximum tax deduction, Western allocated 90% of the purchase price to the building and only 10% to the land. A more realistic allocation would have been 70% to the building and 30% to the land.
Explain the tax advantage of allocating too much to the building and too little to the land.

Was Western's allocation ethical? If so, state why. If not, state why not. Identify who was harmed.

Answer 1

Answer:

Explanation:

Because land never depreciates, Western Bank & Trust wanted to distribute a higher percentage of the purchase price to the building, rather than the land. By allocating 90% of the purchase price to the building, rather than a more accurate 70%, Western Bank & Trust increases the depreciation amount of the building each year. For tax purposes, the IRS requires that the Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS) be used as the depreciation method used by companies. Under this method, the IRS specifies the useful life for a specific asset. MACRS also ignores residual value of an asset at the end of its useful life. By stating that the building was worth 90% of the total purchase price, Western Bank is attempting to increase its tax deduction from the IRS, because only the building depreciates, not the land. This improper allocation of the total purchase amount violates GAAP principles, which require that accounting information be “relevant and have faithful representation.” The information must be “complete, neutral, and free from error” (Nobles, Mattison, & Matsumura, 2014). For Western Bank to provide complete, neutral, and free from error information, it should record the transaction honestly: 70% to the building, 30% to the land. This dishonest representation is harmful to the federal government in that it is allowing Western Bank to take more money than what it is owed. If these kinds of situations happen on a large scale, it could have a huge impact on the economy in general. Source: Nobles, T., Mattison, B., & Matsumura, E. M. (2014). Horngren's Accounting, 10th Edition. Pearson Education, Inc. Student 2