You have your own CPA tax practice and you are greeted with new clients

Income
Tax Return Assignment

Spring
2014

You have your own CPA tax
practice and you are greeted with new clients:
Albert and Jenny Cunningham and their two children. You meet with them and they give you the
information shown below. They would like
you to prepare their tax return for 2013.
They would like to file married filing jointly.

NOTE: Reference to the “current tax year” below for
the taxpayers, Albert and Jenny, it is for the calendar year 2013.

Albert and Jenny Cunningham
(both 42 years old) are married and have 2 children. Their son, Michael is 8 and their daughter,
Ashley, is 3. They live at 151 32^nd
Avenue Denver, CO 80222.

The following table
summarizes the birthdates, etc. for the family members:

	Social Security Number	Date of Birth
Albert	523-33-3456	May 12
Jenny	454-66-1654	March 15
Michael	523-45-7890	September 16
Ashley	523-50-6423	November 3

Jenny sells cosmetics for Maxim
Company. Albert is Vice Principal at the local high school and he works
independently as a repair/handyman. Their income from their full time jobs is
as follows:

	Salary	Federal Tax Withheld	State Tax Withheld
Jenny	$85,000	$10,500	$5,400
Albert	$45,000	$6,100	$3,150

NOTE: the above income is before considering the
following items:

1. Maxim has a cafeteria
benefits plan that lets employees select benefits equal to as much as 10% of
their annual salary or receive the cash equivalent. Jenny selects the max of 10% of her salary and
chooses dental insurance, $40,000 in
group term life insurance, disability insurance, and company-provided day care.
The total cost to Maxim of those benefits is $6,600. Jenny takes the remaining benefits of $1,900
to which she is entitled in cash.

2. Because Maxim does not
have an employee pension plan, Albert and Jenny each contribute $5,500 to their
individual retirement accounts.

3. The school district gives Albert
medical insurance and group term life insurance equal to 100% of his annual
salary. He pays an additional $125 a
month to cover Jenny and the children under his medical plan and this is
deducted after tax from his salary.

4. The school district also
has a qualified contributory pension plan to which it contributes 5% of Albert’s
annual salary. Albert is required to
contribute 3% of his salary. Albert is allowed to make additional contributions
of up to 2% of his salary, and he contributes the maximum.

In addition to the life
insurance coverage provided by their employers. Albert and Jenny purchase
$100,000 in whole life insurance on each other, along with a disability insurance
policy for Albert. The checkbook analysis table that follows shows the costs
that they paid for each of these policies.

Jenny’s Job requires her
to travel throughout her five-state region. Maxim has an accountable
reimbursement plan from which Jenny receives $8,500 for the following expenses:

Airplane transportation and auto expenses	$4,330
Lodging	2,350
Incidentals	400
Note: She has used her Honda Civic in her work for Maxim Company. During 2013, she properly documented 6,000 business miles of which she was reimbursed in the above amount list. Jenny elects to use the standard mileage method to calculate her car expenses. She spent $45 on tolls and $135 on parking related to her cosmetic sales.

In May,Jenny and Albert go
to the Gulf Stream Casino with Jenny’s client Beth and her husband. After
wagering $320 without winning, Jenny wins $2,600 on the blackjack table. The
casino withholds $780 for federal income tax and $260 for Colorado income
taxes.

Albert hires his students
to help him in his summer repair/handyman business. This year, he is able to
hire 7 students. Albert shuttles between
sites, supervising the job talking to prospective clients and helping. He
treats the students as independent contractors. His business generates the
following income and expenses.

Revenues	$112,000
Supplies	33,100
Other material	6,100
Insurance	5,100
Payments to student help	48,400

During the year, Albert
and Jenny receive the following portfolio income:

Interest on savings accounts**	$2,030
Interest on U.S. Treasury bills	400
Qualified Cash Dividends on Johnson Stock	1,750
Interest on city of Denver bonds	600
Interest on New Hampshire government bonds	400

**Note: $180 of the $2,030 of interest earned from
savings was from Albert’s Business Savings Account that he maintained for his
repair/handyman business.

Albert and Jenny own 3,000
shares of Sampson Corporation stock that they purchased ten years ago on June
30, for $37,000. Early in the current
tax year on February 1, they sell all the shares for $16,800. Note:
The basis of the stock was not reported to the IRS.

Albert and Jenny also sell
100 shares of Johnson Corporation stock for $6,200 on December 1. They purchased the stock six months earlier
on June 1 for $2,700. The cost basis
upon the sale was reported to the IRS. The couple also sells 250 shares of Mason Corporation for $4,100 on
October 23, cost basis $11,350 (purchased five years earlier on July 13). The cost basis upon sale was not reported to
the IRS.

Albert and Jenny own a 4%
investment interest in a limited partnership, BDK Partnership, Federal ID
84-5313212. The limited partnership reports the following information to them.

Ordinary loss	$2,100
Long-term capital gain	600
Charitable Contribution	300
Cash distribution	2,400

During the year, the
family spends 20 days at its summer vacation home in Buena Vista, Colorado;
they rent it to vacationers for 80 days. Information pertaining to the summer
vacation home is as follows:

Rental Income	$6,500
Interest on mortgage	4,450
Property taxes	1,600
Management fee	380
Repairs	320
Utilities	650
Insurance	420
Depreciation	7,000

One night, while returning
home from school, Albert is involved in an automobile accident and is
hospitalized for 7 days. He incurs $14,000 in medical expenses. His
employer-provided insurance policy reimburses him $11,800 of the costs. In
addition, his disability insurance policy pays him $3,200 for time he misses
from school.

The car is totally
destroyed. It was purchased in ten years ago for $19,500 and Albert finds a
similar car selling for $11,000. The insurance company reimburses him $7,500.

An analysis of Jenny and Albert’s
checkbook reveals the following payments in the current tax year:

Optometrist	285
Veterinarian	275
Prescription drugs	175
Over-the-counter medicine	320
Chamber of Commerce contribution	150
Contribution to candidate for Congress	500
United Way	260
Mile High Church	750
Vanderbilt University	520
Auto registration on automobiles ($130 of which is a license fee)	390
Tax preparation fee	375
Automobile insurance	$1,700
Homeowners insurance on their primary residence	520
Life Insurance	850
Disability insurance	480
Country club dues	3,600
Health club dues	1,100

During the current tax
year pertaining to their principal residence, Albert and Jenny take out a $41,000
home equity loan that they use to renovate the home. Interest paid on this loan
totals $1,950 during the year. Albert and Jenny purchased their current home a
few years ago by paying $25,000 down and signing a $151,000 mortgage note,
secured by the home. The home is worth $230,000, and the balance on the original
mortgage is $140,000. They pay interest on their home mortgage of $14,700
during the year. They also pay $310 in interest on their personal credit cards
and $1,720 in property taxes on their home during 2013.

Required:

a. Compute Albert and Jenny’s
taxable income for current tax year, the tax on this income and the amount of
refund or additional tax due. You are
required to go to the irs.gov website and download the appropriate tax forms
and schedules that you believe are needed and complete these forms. The following are some suggested forms and
Schedules but you may need additional forms/schedules depending on how you
treat each item referred to above: Form
1040, Schedule A, Schedule B, Schedule C, Schedule D, Schedule E, Form 2106,
Form 8949, and Form 8606.

b. You should also provide a tax
return memorandum showing the following items:
a summary worksheet of the above calculations of income tax and the
refund or additional tax due; and a supplemental discussion of the treatment of
each item given in the facts of the assignment. If an item does not affect their taxable
income calculation, you should discuss why it does not enter into the
computation. Please address this tax
memorandum to your clients: Albert and
Jenny Cunningham.