Tax Services:

Depreciation and Amortization

At Sisterson, we have been helping our clients with fixed assets record-keeping and decision making for years.  Gone are the days of manually preparing depreciation schedules. Today, with the help of automation, much more attention is placed on the planning vs. compliance aspects of fixed assets record-keeping. In this area, a properly planned decision today can affect years to come.

Our firm uses a software package to maintain our clients’ fixed assets records.  This software has the ability to calculate depreciation using rules for accounting and tax return purposes and is frequently used as a means for projecting out depreciation in future years for tax planning purposes. Some of the services we provide relative to this specialized area include:

• Preparation of depreciation computations using the rules for generally accepted accounting principles, federal income tax principles, alternative minimum tax principles and state income tax principles, among others
• Projections of future depreciation using any of the alternatives noted above
• Assistance in the economic and tax considerations of buying vs. leasing
• Planning as to how to structure the ownership for real estate acquisition
• Tax planning in terms of states imposing personal property tax on tangible personal property
• Cost segregation studies for real estate acquisitions
• Analysis and planning for the capitalization or expensing of repairs and maintenance expenditures, including how to document decisions
• Consulting and tax planning to determine optimum lives and methods