[Nancy]

Steve,

Yeah, I'm an accountant too. Boring, huh? LOL

Even though I am an accountant, I don't do taxes. I hate them. I have a very deep and very narrow specialty to which I limit my area of practice. A couple sections of the tax code effect it and that's it.

I don't even do work on my own return. The entire U.S. Tax Code really p**sses me off, so I just stay away from tax prep. When you really get down in to it, and understand just what they are doing to people, it will infuriate you. If you just see the end result of how much you pay in taxes, you are riled enough. See how it got there and you'd really get p.o.'d. My blood pressure is 95 over 60 and I keep it that way by not preparing tax returns of any type. Ever. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

But I do keep up with the changes in the law. The general provisions such as this depreciation/179 discussion are pretty straight forward in their generalities. We have some people in our office who are incredibly good at this stuff so I can't help but keep up, almost by osmosis. My husband is also a CPA and I guess we have a very weird office. Everyone in it has some unique and extreme expertise in some area of something. We are not a large practice and all know a lot about each others expertise just by being exposed to it daily.

I can't tell you how often I am jaw-droppingly surprised that all CPAs, or at least those not in giant national firms, don't know or can't explain this stuff, even when they don't work in taxes every day just like I don't. Perhaps our firm is just the Hummer H2 of the accounting world. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_razz.gif[/img] We're different that way.

As you might be able to see from my prior post to Mac, there is not one simple answer to even a simple question. While generally the deferral of depreciation recapture on an automobile requires a trade-in transaction, there are actually ways to structure a deal so you can indeed tranfer it to a third party other than a dealer, buy a new car from a dealer and still have a roll-over adjustment to the basis in the new car instead of recognizing the depreciation recapture as ordinary income. It's usually not worth the expense and trouble since the difference can be negligible, but it can be done.

So even small questions require very big answers since every situation is different and there is often several correct answers, any one of which is better in a given situtation. Always seek competent tax advice for your own specific circumstances.

Nancy