The Vanity Corporation Organized and Began Operations in January

question 68

Essay

The Vanity Corporation organized and began operations in January. The corporation's ten equal shareholders elect to have Vanity taxed as an S corporation, and the election and necessary consents are filed in a timely manner. For its first tax year ended December 31, Vanity has ordinary income of $64,000 and short-term capital gains of $16,000. During the year, it distributes $30,000 in cash equally to its ten shareholders. For the year, how much income should each shareholder report and how should it be characterized?

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Definitions:

Period Costs

Costs that are taken directly to the income statement as expenses in the period in which they are incurred or accrued.

Fixed Costs

Expenses that do not change in total despite fluctuations in production or sales volume, such as rent, insurance, and salaries.

Variable Costing

A costing method that includes only variable production costs—direct materials, direct labor, and variable manufacturing overhead—in product costs.

Common Cost

A cost that is incurred to support a number of cost objects but that cannot be traced to them individually. For example, the wage cost of the pilot of a 747 airliner is a common cost of all of the passengers on the aircraft. Without the pilot, there would be no flight and no passengers. But no part of the pilot’s wage is caused by any one passenger taking the flight.