Real Estate Investing at County Tax Deed Auctions

[ltnvmanagement]

If we withdrew cash from our bank in the form of cashiers checks made payable to a county treasurer to pay winning bids at real estate auctions, didn't win a bid and therefore re-deposit the cashiers checks at our bank, what expense account should that be recorded to?  Should we record the withdrawal as Cash that's subsequently re-deposited? Still not sure what expense account to post the transaction against.

[Anonymous]

what a/c did you charge when you wrote the check.  that's the a/c that should be credited. you don't have an expense. 

[TomYoung · Accepted solution]

"Still not sure what expense account to post the transaction against."

Not every withdrawal of cash is an "expense" and not every deposit of cash is an "income."  You took some cash out of your bank account, held the cash for a while, then re-deposited the cash.  No expense, no income.

If (maybe) you're using an accounting program like Quicken and want to record the two transactions you'd enter them along the following lines:

Debit (increase) "Cash in Hand"     $XXX

Credit (decrease) "Cash in Bank"   $XXX

Withdrawal in the form of Cashier's check

and

Debit (increase) "Cash in Bank"    $XXX

Credit (decrease) "Cash in Hand" $XXX

Redeposit of Cashier's check