Question

Jed is an electrician. Jed and his wife are accrual basis taxpayers and file a joint return. Jed wired a new house for Alison and billed her $15,000. Alison paid Jed $10,000 and refused to pay the remainder of the bill, claiming the fee to be exorbitant. Jed took Alison to Small Claims Court for the unpaid amount and was awarded a $2,000 judgement. Jed was able to collect the judgement but not the remainder of the bill from Alison. What amount of loss may Jed deduct in the current year?

Answer 1

$3000

Explanation:

Assuming that the court didn't charge any legal fee to Jed and Jed also the lawyer for this case didn't charge him anything, Jed had personally planned to get $15,000. Subtracting the amount initially paid, $10,000, Jed still needs $5,000 from Alison. Assuming a fair judgement was made, giving Jed 2,000 and subtracting this from his expectation of $5,000 we remain with $3,000. Therefore, we can conclude that the $3,000 is the loss he should record out of this deal.