@Carl wrote:
If a taxpayer never pays for an asset, then that asset has no cost basis.
Not so. If I never pay for the furnace....
That was not what I was referring to initially, which was expensing an item that was never paid for, either in cash or via some sort of debt.
Cash basis taxpayers need to pay for an asset, one way or the other, before they can deduct the asset as an expense.
@Critter-3's post is correct in terms of an asset being placed in service and depreciated.
