How exciting is this?! This being my first of what will be a monthly blog on fixed assets management. Why you ask, should this be so much fun? Let me explain: I am a CPA with a career focused on corporate tax, with a wide range of experience from being a Vice President of Tax Preparation Services to a Depreciation/Tax Specialist to being a Portal Content Manager. However, I have long had a particular interest in fixed assets management, which I specialized in for close to 20 years. One cannot be an expert in all things tax-related but early on I developed a particular fondness for the challenge of fixed assets management. Every time a tax law or GAAP rule changes, accountants concentrate on learning everything there is to know about preparing current year income tax returns and financial statements. But unless you have a client who hasn’t filed in past years or needs to amend a prior year return or reissue a financial statement, knowing past law is not nearly as important as knowing the current rules.

This, of course, is not true for fixed assets management! Whereas knowing the current rules is essential, most businesses will have older assets still on the books and those assets must continue to be depreciated under the old rules. So there you are. When it comes to fixed assets management, one has to know it all: current and past rules and regulations, tax and GAAP, federal and state. How could anyone not love the challenge of fixed assets management?!

This monthly blog will cover all things fixed assets related: current events (including recent tax court rulings), expiring tax provisions, and what changes (in both the tax and GAAP arenas) you might expect will affect fixed assets management. I will always try to end with a Fascinating Fact about Fixed Assets. Call it a “take-away,” a bonus tidbit of information that you may either wonder how you missed or that may serve as a useful reminder of something not to be overlooked.

So, let’s catch up on what has been happening lately in the realm of fixed assets management.

First, there are several recent rulings and published guidance:

• There are new IRS regulations that change the way businesses will account for repairs and other expenses related to tangible property. (These are frequently referred to as the “capitalization-repair regs” as they cover amounts paid to acquire, produce, or improve tangible property.) At the time these regulations were issued, the IRS promised to provide guidance to those taxpayers wanting to adopt the rules early and how to make automatic accounting method changes to comply with them. The IRS has issued Revenue Procedure 2014-16, which is generally effective Jan. 24, 2014. (There are also transition rules included for any Forms 3115 filed before the January 24^th date.)

• The IRS next issued Revenue Procedure 2014-17, which covers some automatic consent procedures for changes in accounting method for dispositions of tangible depreciable property from a general asset account. One of the provisions allows a late partial disposition election to be made as an accounting method change. For example, if a building’s roof was replaced in an earlier year, as long as the building is still owned, the taxpayer may now recover the costs of the disposition.

Due to recent modifications to the general asset account rules, the Revenue Procedure includes a provision allowing one to revoke a general asset account by making an election. However, this election only applies to property placed in service in 2012 and 2013.

• The IRS Office of Chief Counsel issued a field attorney advice memorandum (FAA 20140202F) preventing the owner of a hotel/convention center from claiming bonus depreciation on otherwise qualified property as it could not prove the construction of the property began after 2007 and before 2014. While the FAA memorandum cannot be cited as precedent, it does demonstrate that the IRS closely follows construction dates when bonus depreciation issues arise.

• To encourage capital investment, implementing an investment tax credit has been recommended by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a non-partisan think tank whose goal is to help policy makers understand the impact of innovation on U.S. productivity. While it is firmly believed by many that such a credit could stimulate the economy, it runs counter to Congress’s recent attacks on both tax credits and allowable deductions.

• Before departing the Senate, Max Baucus made a number of proposals for tax reform, including a pooled asset cost recovery system consisting of four asset pools, each with a prescribed depreciation rate.

• More recently, David Camp (R-MI), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, has suggested eliminating MACRS and lengthening the depreciable lives for property placed in service after Dec. 31, 2015. This is just one provision included in his proposed Tax Reform Act of 2014.

• Look for further IRS guidance covering the dispositions of tangible property. The temporary guidance offered for the dispositions of tangible property were not finalized at the time the capitalization-repair