- 52 - increase in value should have no impact on depreciation, provided that the original determination was reasonable. Id. at 276-278. Fribourg did not contemplate the effect of an adjustment to the original depreciable basis on the annual straight line depreciation allowance. Additionally, Fribourg did not consider whether the adjusted depreciable basis should be further adjusted by previously allowed depreciation in order to arrive at the proper remaining basis for depreciation. Rather, Fribourg addressed the impact of fluctuations in the market value subsequent to the original determination of salvage value. We conclude that respondent's method of calculating the allowable amortization deduction would neither contravene the annual accounting concept nor disregard the statute of limitations. Federal income taxes are generally assessed on the basis of annual returns showing the net result of all the taxpayer's transactions during a fixed accounting period. Burnet v. Sanford & Brooks Co., 282 U.S. at 363. Although each year stands separately, and an error made in computation of the tax for one year cannot be corrected by making an erroneous computation under the law of a later year, Greene Motor Co. v. Commissioner, 5 T.C. 314, 316 (1945); MacMillan Co. v. Commissioner, 4 B.T.A. 251, 253 (1926), the annual accounting concept does not require us to close our eyes to what happened in prior years, United States v. Skelly Oil Co., 394 U.S. 678, 684Page: Previous 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 Next
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