Federal Tax Research 10th Edition by Steven Gill, Gerald Whittenburg, Roby Sawyers, Debra Sanders, William Raabe

Exercise 7

Julia currently is considering the purchase of some land to be held as an investment. She and the seller have agreed on a contract under which Julia would pay $1,000 per month for 60 months, or $60,000 total. The seller, not in the real estate business, acquired the land several years ago by paying $10,000 in cash. Two alternative interpretations of this transaction are (1) a price of $51,726 with 6 percent interest and (2) a price of $39,380 with 18 percent interest. Which interpretation would you expect each party to prefer Why