Question

Rip garage, inc. (459 ellis avenue, harrisburg, pa 17111), is an accrual basis taxpayer that repairs automobiles. in late december 2017, the company repaired samuel mosley's car and charged him $1,000. samuel did not think the problem had been fixed, so he refused to pay; thus, trip refused to release the automobile. in early january 2018, trip made a few adjustments under the hood; trip then convinced samuel that the automobile was working properly. at that time, samuel agreed to pay only $900 because he did not have the use of the car for a week. trip said "fine," accepted the $900, and released the automobile to samuel. an irs agent thinks trip, as an accrual basis taxpayer, should report $1,000 of income in 2017, when the work was done, and then deduct a $100 business loss in 2018. prepare a memo to susan apple, the treasurer of trip, with your recommended treatment for the disputed income.

Answer 1

MEMO

To: Treasurer of Trip Garage, Inc.

From: Me

Subject: Dispute over accrued revenue

Mrs. S. Apple,

Good evening. Regarding your dispute over accrued revenue generated form the repair of Mr. Mosley's car, I must inform you the following:

Trip Garage, Inc., is an accrual basis taxpayer, therefore, revenues must be recorded once the repair service was completed, not when the invoice was collected.

In future occasions when similar problems show up, you should record an allowance for doubtful accounts. This way, if you believe that an account receivable is unlikely to be collected, it will be not considered for the year's financial records. This adjusting journal entry must be recorded before the end of the year, if not, all related revenues must be included in the years income statement.

Regards,

Me

Explanation:

Accrual taxpayers are required to record revenues once the revenue generating activity has been completed, i.e. Trip should have recorded $1,000 in revenue during 2017:

Dr Accounts receivable 1,000

Cr Service revenue 1,000

If Trip didn't consider that it would be able to collect the $1,000 receivable, then it should have recorded it as bad debt expense:

Dr Bad debt expense 1,000

Cr Allowance for doubtful accounts 1,000

If thy did not record the bad expense, then the IRS agent is right, and the $1,000 must be included in the 2017 income statement.