Question

Stanford owns and operates two dry cleaning businesses. He travels to Boston to acquire a restaurant. Later in the month, he travels to New York to discuss acquiring a bakery. Stanford does not acquire the restaurant but does acquire the bakery on November 1, 2015.Stand incurred the following expenses:Total investigation costs related to the restaurant - $28,000Total investigation costs related to the bakery - $51,000What is the maximum amount Stanford can deduct in 2015 for investigation expenses?

Answer 1

The maximum amount is the $51,000 investigation costs related to the bakery.

Stanford is neither in the bakery business or in the restaurant business. It is in the cleaning business. Therefore, it can only deduct investigation expenses that resulted in acquistions of businesses in other sectors.

As Stanford did not buy the restaurant, it cannot deduct the $28,000 spent on investigation. It can oly deduct the $51,000 spend on investigation costs because it did buy the bakery.