Small Business

Business assets are things of value that are used in a business. The assets are of two types:
Tangible assets, Cash and Receivables, Inventory like business vehicles, equipment, supplies, and buildings.
Intangible assets, like goodwill copyrights, patents, and trademarks.

When expensed property is sold or exchanged, gain is ordinary income up to the extent of the first year expense deduction plus MACRS deductions and bonus depreciation taken.
Expensing deductions are also subject to recapture if property placed in service after 1986 is not used more than 50% of the time for business use in any year before the end of the recovery period.

Generally, depreciable Real Property sold at a gain is considered either Section 1231 if depreciated post 1987or Section 1250 property if depreciated pre 1987 and reported on Form 4797
Bonus depreciation taken in years 2008 through the present year must be picked up as ordinary income
Gain attributable to depreciation pre 1987 is subject to recapture as ordinary income unless straight line method was used..
Gain on the disposition of Section 1250 property is treated as ordinary income to the extent of additional depreciation allowed or allowable on the property.
Depreciable Residential Rental Property sold at a loss is considered Section 1250 property reported on Form 4797 Part 1 if long term, and 4797 part 2 if short term.

Exchanges of partnership interests do not qualify as nontaxable exchanges of like-kind property. This applies regardless of whether they are general or limited partnership interests.

Selling expenses should be added to the cost amount and subtracted from the gross proceeds sales amount on IRS Schedule D or Form 4797.
This will help insure that the gross proceeds figure agrees with the 1099 slip that the IRS will receive.

You may elect to report the sale on IRS Form 6252 which spreads the tax liability on the gain over the life of the installment period.
You may elect not to use the installment method if you want to report the entire profit in the current year of sale.

The long term holding period is more than one year. The short term holding period is one year or less.
The significance of this determination is that gains on long term assets benefit from lower tax rates.

Fair market value (FMV) is the price at which the property would change hands between a buyer and a seller when both have reasonable knowledge of all the necessary facts and neither has to buy or sell.
If parties with adverse interests place a value on property in an arm's-length transaction, that is strong evidence of FMV.
If there is a stated price for services, this price is treated as the FMV unless there is evidence to the contrary.

Intangible property is any personal property that has value but cannot be seen or touched. It includes such items as the goodwill value of a business, patents, copyrights.
Gain or loss on the sale or exchange of amortizable or depreciable intangible property held longer than 1 year (other than an amount recaptured as ordinary income) is a section 1231 gain or loss.
Gain or loss on dispositions of other intangible property is ordinary or capital depending on whether the property is a capital asset or a noncapital asset.