Skip to main content

Journal Entries for Land Acquisition - Modified Cash Basis

By
Question:

A church is in the process of purchasing property and wants to use the modified cash basis. The church plans to pay for part of the property with cash while financing the remainder of the payments through a long-term note. What are the debit and credit effects of the following hypothetical scenario?

Hypothetical Scenario:

The property that the church desires to purchase costs $100,000. The church is able to pay $50,000 with cash, meaning that the remaining $50,000 will be financed through a long-term note. The church expects to pay monthly payments of $500 on the long-term note. 

Answer:

The modified cash basis, as we recommend its application, includes no long-term assets or liabilities on the balance sheet. Therefore, the journal entries for the above scenario are as follows:

*Capital Expenditures (debit)                          $50,000
          Cash (credit)                                                               $50,000

The above journal entry is the only current entry. However, monthly payments on the long-term note are recorded as follows:

**Long-Term Loan Payments (debit)             $500
            Cash (credit)                                                               $500

While the balance sheet for the church reports no long-term assets or long-term debt, most members of the congregation will be interested to know the status of the reduction in the amount owed on the long-term note. We recommend that the reports to the congregation include a recap of loan activity. In our example, the first year report would likely include a beginning balance of $50,000. The principal portions of the $500 monthly payments that are subtracted (the remaining portion being interest cost) should result in an ending loan balance equal to the remaining debt. 

We encourage our viewers to read the following blog post that we published in June of 2013:

Facility Construction and Land Acquisition – GAAP vs Cash Basis

*An expense account used only on a rare occasion such as this.
**An expense account that can and should be provided a general fund budget.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Church Car Purchase for Pastor

By
Question: A church would like to purchase a car for the pastor's use. What is the best method to accomplish this goal? Should the car be titled in the pastor's name? What will be the tax consequences of this arrangement? Answer: The church has two main alternatives for this purchase:  Title the car in the pastor's name and reimburse him for business expenses Title it in the church's name and treat personal use as taxable compensation There are fewer immediate tax consequences for the latter. Since both are viable options, we will discuss both situations in this post. If the church chooses to give the car to the pastor and register it in his name, he is free to use it for whatever personal use he desires with no tax consequences. However, the fair value of the car is taxable as compensation at the time it is given to the pastor. Internal Revenue Code section 102(c) clearly states that gifts given to employees by their employers are taxable compensation. The...
2 comments
Read more

Can Form 4361 be filed after the deadline?

By
Question:   Is it possible to opt out of Social Security after the 2-year deadline? Answer:  Unlike other employees, a licensed or ordained minister has the option to opt out of Social Security and Medicare (FICA). If a minister wants to opt out they must file Form 4361 by the tax deadline including extension, in the second year in which they have received ministerial income of $400 or more. This election is final, and the minister cannot opt back into FICA taxes.  At MinistryCPA, we have received questions from ministers who have exceeded the two year deadline and desire to opt-out. There have been several court cases which provide guidance in answering this question. Some have argued that the minister was unaware of the deadline, had mistakenly believed they had filed a timely election, were given incorrect advice by an IRS employee, or their opposition to participate in Social Security and Medicare did not arise until after the 2-year deadline had passed. In each of th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Rental of a Church Parsonage to a Non-Minister

By
Question: A church owns a parsonage, but the pastor does not use it as he owns his own home. The church rents the parsonage to a tenant other than a minister or employee of the church. Will the church be responsible for paying income tax on these monies as Unrelated Business Income (filing a Form 990-T) even if the money is used to carry on the business of the church? Answer: Whether the money is used for church purposes is irrelevant.  IRS Publication 598  states: "If an exempt organization regularly carries on a trade or business not substantially related to its exempt purpose, except that it provides funds to carry out that purpose, the organization is subject to tax on its income from that unrelated trade or business." Fortunately, in the case of rental income from real property, such income is "excluded in computing unrelated business taxable income" (Publication 598). Caution: see content below regarding debt-financed property.  However, a second concern not a...
Post a Comment
Read more