Internal Revenue Code section 212

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Internal Revenue Code § 212 (26 U.S.C.   § 212) provides a deduction, for U.S. federal income tax purposes, for expenses incurred in investment activities. Taxpayers are allowed to deduct

The Internal Revenue Code (IRC), formally the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, is the domestic portion of federal statutory tax law in the United States, published in various volumes of the United States Statutes at Large, and separately as Title 26 of the United States Code (USC). It is organized topically, into subtitles and sections, covering income tax, payroll taxes, estate taxes, gift taxes, and excise taxes; as well as procedure and administration. Its implementing agency is the Internal Revenue Service.

Tax deduction is a reduction of income that is able to be taxed and is commonly a result of expenses, particularly those incurred to produce additional income. Tax deductions are a form of tax incentives, along with exemptions and credits. The difference between deductions, exemptions and credits is that deductions and exemptions both reduce taxable income, while credits reduce tax.

Income tax in the United States

Income taxes in the United States are imposed by the federal, most state, and many local governments. The income taxes are determined by applying a tax rate, which may increase as income increases, to taxable income, which is the total income less allowable deductions. Income is broadly defined. Individuals and corporations are directly taxable, and estates and trusts may be taxable on undistributed income. Partnerships are not taxed, but their partners are taxed on their shares of partnership income. Residents and citizens are taxed on worldwide income, while nonresidents are taxed only on income within the jurisdiction. Several types of credits reduce tax, and some types of credits may exceed tax before credits. An alternative tax applies at the federal and some state levels.

all the ordinary and necessary expenses paid or incurred during the taxable year--

Taxable income refers to the base upon which an income tax system imposes tax. Generally, it includes some or all items of income and is reduced by expenses and other deductions. The amounts included as income, expenses, and other deductions vary by country or system. Many systems provide that some types of income are not taxable and some expenditures not deductible in computing taxable income. Some systems base tax on taxable income of the current period, and some on prior periods. Taxable income may refer to the income of any taxpayer, including individuals and corporations, as well as entities that themselves do not pay tax, such as partnerships, in which case it may be called “net profit”.

Property, in the abstract, is what belongs to or with something, whether as an attribute or as a component of said thing. In the context of this article, it is one or more components, whether physical or incorporeal, of a person's estate; or so belonging to, as in being owned by, a person or jointly a group of people or a legal entity like a corporation or even a society. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property has the right to consume, alter, share, redefine, rent, mortgage, pawn, sell, exchange, transfer, give away or destroy it, or to exclude others from doing these things, as well as to perhaps abandon it; whereas regardless of the nature of the property, the owner thereof has the right to properly use it, or at the very least exclusively keep it.

Section 23(a)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1939, the predecessor to section 212 of the current Internal Revenue Code of 1986, was enacted as part of the Revenue Act of 1942, effective retroactively for tax years that began after December 31, 1938, in the wake of the United States Supreme Court decision in the case of Higgins v. Commissioner . [1] [2] In Higgins, the taxpayer attempted to deduct expenses for the years 1932 and 1933 related to his investment efforts, which the U.S. Supreme Court held were rightly disallowed, under the tax statute as applicable to those years, by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (now known as the Internal Revenue Service). The Bureau contended, and the Court ruled, that investment efforts were not deductible as part of a "trade or business."

The United States Revenue Act of 1942, Pub. L. 753, Ch. 619, 56 Stat. 798, increased individual income tax rates, increased corporate tax rates, and reduced the personal exemption amount from $1,500 to $1,200. The exemption amount for each dependent was reduced from $400 to $350.

Internal Revenue Service revenue service of the United States federal government

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The government agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, who is appointed to a five-year term by the President of the United States. The IRS is responsible for collecting taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of federal statutory tax law of the United States. The duties of the IRS include providing tax assistance to taxpayers and pursuing and resolving instances of erroneous or fraudulent tax filings. The IRS has also overseen various benefits programs, and enforces portions of the Affordable Care Act.

The United States Congress responded by enacting section 23(a)(2) of the 1939 Code. Congress did not grant investment activities the status of "trade or business" expenses, but instead acknowledged that since investment expenses were costs of producing income, they should be deductible. [3]

United States Congress Legislature of the United States

The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the Federal Government of the United States. The legislature consists of two chambers: the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Section 212(3) may allow for the deduction of accountant's fees associated with preparation of a federal income tax return.

Accountant practitioner of accountancy or accounting

An accountant is a practitioner of accounting or accountancy, which is the measurement, disclosure or provision of assurance about financial information that helps managers, investors, tax authorities and others make decisions about allocating resource(s).

Notes

  1. 312 U.S. 212 (1941).
  2. See also Bingham's Trust v. Commissioner, 325 U.S. 365, 65 S. Ct. 1232, 45-2 U.S. Tax Cas. (CCH) paragr. 9327 (1945).
  3. Samuel A. Donaldson, Federal Income Taxation of Individuals, 2nd Ed., p. 237.

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