Question

Catherine is the sole stockholder of Cat Co., a calendar-year C corporation. The corporation has a business need for a tract of land that Catherine owns personally. The plan is for the corporation to use the land for eighteen months from March 1, 2018 through August 31, 2019. The fair market value of the land is $500,000. Catherine’s basis in the land is $100,000. She has held the land as an investment for the last five years. Catherine is considering the following three possible courses of action: 1. She transfers the land to the corporation in exchange for stock of the corporation in a §351 transfer. 2. She leases the land to the corporation for its fair rental value of $3,000 per month. 3. She sells the land to the corporation for its fair market value of $500,000. Whichever choice is made, the land will be sold to a third party on September 1, 2019 for its fair market value, which she assumes will still be $500,000. The corporation’s taxable income, exclusive of rental payments and gain or loss on land sale, will be $150,000 in 2018 and 2019. Catherine’s adjusted gross income, exclusive of rental income and gain or loss on land sale, will be $200,000 in 2018 and 2019. She is single with no dependents. She will not itemize her deductions. Her standard deduction is $12,000 under the new law and she will get no personal exemption. The individual tax rate schedules for 2018 are attached. You may assume that the rate schedule and standard deduction will remain the same for 2019. The corporate tax rate on all taxable income will be a flat 21 percent in both years • Create an Excel spreadsheet that will compute the 2018 and 2019 income tax payable by Catherine and Cat Co. Use the individual tax calculators available on Blackboard. Compute the total tax payable under options 1, 2, and 3. • Based on your findings, what do you recommend to Catherine?

2018 Tax Rate Schedule X

0 - 9,525.00 - 10% -

9,525 -38,700.00 952.50 12% -

38,700 82,500.00 4,453.50 22% -

82,500 157,500.00 14,089.50 24% 18,289.50

157,500 200,000.00 32,089.50 32% -

200,000 500,000.00 45,689.50 35% -

500,000 150,689.50 37% -

Taxable income 100,000.00

Income tax 18,289.50

Answer 1