Ask a CPA

You must know the basis of your property to determine whether you have a gain or loss from its sale or other disposition.
The basis of property you buy is usually its cost minus any depreciation taken.
However, if you acquired the property by gift, inheritance, or in some way other than buying it, you must use a basis other than its cost.

The amount you realize from a sale or exchange is the total of all money you receive plus the fair market value (defined below) of all property or services you receive.
The amount you realize also includes any of your liabilities that were assumed by the buyer and any liabilities to which the property you transferred is subject, such as real estate taxes or a mortgage.

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.

Depreciable assets such as buildings, land, machinery and equipment held more than one year are classified as (IRC) Section 1231 property.
The sale triggers a taxable event (gain or loss) that is reported on IRS Form 4797, Sale of Business Property, Part 1.

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.

In the sale of assets, all the tangible and intangible assets to be transferred to the buyer are normally separately identified. The buyer's assumption of liabilities, if any, must be carefully provided for.
The sale of assets is in contrast to the sale of stock, in which all assets and liabilities of the entity represented by the stock are transferred as part of the sale of stock. The entity remains in place, and so do the assets and liabilities. Only the ownership of the stock itself is changed in such a 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.

The AMT Patch was the mechanism used by Congress to offset the failure of the tax law to automatically require an adjustment of the AMT brackets for inflation.
This failure, with the resulting need for the annual Patch, has been going on since 2000.
Congress permanently addressed the AMT issue by indexing the annual exemption limits for inflation retroactive for 2012.

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.

Generally, if you exchange business or investment property solely for business or investment property of a like-kind, no gain or loss is recognized under Internal Revenue Code Section 1031.
If, as part of the exchange, you also receive other (not like-kind) property or money, gain is recognized to the extent of the other property and money received, but a loss is not recognized.
Section 1031 does not apply to exchanges of inventory, stocks, bonds, notes, other securities or evidence of indebtedness, or certain other assets.