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 Zepp's Federal tax w/ IRA contribution (using 2011 tax tables and no SE
taxes) (13,456)
Difference with IRA contributions of $8,000 $ 2,150
Analysis of federal tax savings:
Deductible IRA ($4,000 × 2 = $8,000 × 25%) $ 2,000.00
AGI effects:
Increase MIDs due to AGI decrease $8,000 × 2% or $813 – $653 $ 160
Medical expenses ($423 – $0) 423
Total increase in itemized deductions $,583
Rate: 25% 2011 marginal tax rate × 25% $ 145.75
Total savings $ 2,145.75
Note: If Larry is a participant in his company's retirement plan, he cannot
deduct a contribution to a traditional IRA but Cathy could. Larry might
consider making a nondeductible contribution to a traditional IRA, or better
yet, a contribution to a Roth IRA. Another option would be to contribute to his
company's Sec. 401(k) plan if it has one. Cathy could contribute to simplified
employee pension plan (SEP).
c. Check on your state's website, if your state has an income tax, or check with
your instructor. Links to all states' websites can be found at
www.taxadmin.org.
d. Statement 4 is true. Since Larry's wages (assuming they are subject to
F.I.C.A.) exceed the O.A.S.D.I wage base, he would only pay the 2.9%
Medicare tax. Cathy paid both the 12.4% O.A.S.D.I. tax and the 2.9% M.H.I.
tax.
Continuous Tax Return Problem 4-1
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Continuous Tax Return Problem 4-2
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4-3 The solutions below were obtained assuming the tax year was 2011.
a. Although the tax goes down due to the dependency exemptions, the $10,000
reduction in withholding triggers an estimated tax penalty. In order to avoid
the penalty for failure to pay estimated taxes, taxpayers normally must pay 90
percent of the current year tax (after credits) or 100 percent of last year's tax
(after credits) on a quarterly basis. This amount is computed on Form 2210 of
the tax return. The required payment based on the current year's tax is
Current year's tax
Income tax after credits $11,481
Self-employment tax 1,105
Total current year tax including self-employment taxes 12,586
Required percentage of current year's tax × 90%
Required payment $11,327
Quarterly payment percentage × 25%
Quarterly payment (rounded) $ 2,832
Instead the couple can pay 100 percent of last year's tax on an installment
basis. Last year's tax was $10,000 so the installment payment would be $2,500
per installment. The Zepps actually paid $8,000 during the year ($7,000 in
withholding + $1,000 of estimated taxes). Consequently, they would have
avoided penalty based on these payments if last year's tax had been $8,000 or
less. Their failure to pay sufficient estimated taxes during the year resulted in
a penalty of $44 as computed using the short method on Form 2210.
b. (The table below accompanies this explanation.) The $4,000 payment to the
child saves the couple taxes of $1,666 (using the rate schedules). Note that
there is no tax to the child since (1) the child is entitled to a standard
deduction equal to his or her earned income plus $300 and (2) there is no
employment taxes on wages paid by parents to their children under 18. Also
observe that the payment does not simply reduce the parents' tax by $1,000
($4,000 × 25% marginal rate). The parents' total tax decrease is summarized
below:
• The deduction for the payment to the child decreases taxable income by
$4,000.
• Self-employment income drops by $4,000 reducing the self-employment
tax by of $491 (13.3% × .9235% × $4,000). The deduction for self-
 employment taxes decreases as well by $282 ($636 – $354).
• Itemized deductions increase by $176 because AGI has decreased by
$3,718. The reduced A.G.I. increases the deduction for medical expenses
and miscellaneous itemized deductions (MIDs). Medical expenses
increase by $102 ($9,000 – $8,898 new lower threshold). MIDs increase
by $74 (2% × $3,718).
• The child credit increases by $200 due to the decrease in A.G.I.
A comparison of the tax consequences with and without the payment to the
child is shown below (note that the taxes were computed using the rate
schedules):
No Payment Payment Difference
Income $125,000 $125,000 0
Payment to child — (4,000) ($4,000)
$125,000 $121,000 ($4,000)
Deductions for AGI (2,635) (2,353) 282
AGI $122,365 $118,647 ($3,718)
Itemized deductions (21,553) (21,728) (175)
Exemptions (18,500) (18,500) (0)
Taxable income $ 82,312 $78,419 ($3,893)
Marginal rate × 25%
($973)
Gross tax (using rate schedules) $ 12,831 $11,856 $973
Child credit (1,350) (1,550) 200
Total income tax $ 11,481 $10,306 $1,175
Self-employment tax 1,105 614 491
Total taxes $ 12,586 $10,920 $1,666
c. The $50,000 increase in wages actually increases their taxable income by
more than $50,000. The increase raises taxable income by $50,653. The
additional $653 of taxable income is due to the elimination of miscellaneous
itemized deductions of $653. In addition, the child tax credit drops from
$1,350 to $0.
d. Assuming the couple has increased AGI of $50,000, an additional increase of
$1,000 results in an additional taxable income of $1,000 ($133,965 –
$132,965) and an increase in tax of $250 or a marginal rate of 25 percent. The
additional $250 can be explained by the fact that the couple is in the 25
percent bracket.
Continuous Tax Return Problem 5-1
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5-2
a. The distributions do not effect the couple's taxable income. However, Larry's
share of partnership income, $200, flows through and is taxable to Larry
regardless of the amount distributed to him. A partnership is not a separate
taxable entity but is considered a conduit or flow-through entity. It files a
partnership tax return that reports the results of partnership operations for the
year (Form 1065) as well as each partner's share of such income (Schedule K-
1). The partner reports his or her share of the income and other items as found
on the K-1 regardless of the amount of distributions. In theory, the
distributions normally represent a return of the partner's investment, including
income earned by the partnership that was retained.
b. Larry's share of the partnership income, $200, is not self-employment income
because he is a limited partner as indicated on the Schedule K-1. Income that
flows from the partnership to an individual partner may or may not be subject
to self-employment taxes. Generally, the ordinary income from partnership
operations and certain payments made to the partner that are guaranteed are
the only type of income potentially subject to self-employment taxes.
However, such ordinary income is not considered self-employment income to
limited partners. This view follows from the fact that investment income such
as interest, dividends and the like are not subject to self-employment taxes. In
the case of a limited partner who is merely an investor, the partnership income
is investment income and is not subject to self- employment taxes. (See
Chapter 3.)
c. Cathy is required to report the value of the membership, $500, as taxable
income.
Continuous Tax Return Problem 6-1
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6-2 The answers to the additional questions to the continuous tax return problem are
given below.
a. The Zepp's nominal marginal tax rate is 25 percent.
b. The dividends were taxed at 15 percent.
c. The answer is (2): 85 percent of the Social Security benefits were taxable.
6-3
a. The tax return for Jennifer Zepp is shown on the following pages.
b. Although the kiddie tax applies, the favorable reduced rates on dividends for
2011 and 2012 (15% and 5%) are still available for computing both the child's
tax and the parental tax. The child's taxable income is $1,600 ($4,000 – $950
standard deduction – $1,400 additional standard deduction since blind). Of the
$1,650, $2,100 is unearned income potentially taxed at the parents' rates
($4,000 investment income – $1,900 threshold). Since the investment income
potentially taxable at the parents' rates, $2,100, exceeds the child's taxable
income of $1,650, the calculation assumes that $1,650 is taxed at the parents'
rates. To determine the amount of dividend income taxed to the parent, it is
assumed that the amount of gross income not taxed to the parents, $2,350
($4,000 gross income – child's taxable income $1,650) represents a prorata
portion of the total dividend income or 25% ($1,000 dividends/$4,000 total
income). Thus of the $2,350 of income that is allocated to the child, $588 is
dividends [($1,000 dividends/$4,000 total income) × $2,350] and the
remaining dividends of $412 ($1,000 – $588) is allocated to the parents. Thus
$412 of the $1,650 taxed at the parents' rates is considered dividend income
taxed at the parents' dividend rate of 15% for a $62 tax and the remaining
$1,238 is ordinary income taxed at 28% for a tax of $347 or a total tax of
$409. These calculations are shown below.
Child’s taxable income $ 1,650
Child’s dividend income $ 1,000
Dividend portion allocable to child ($1,000/$4,000 = 25% × $2,350) (588)
(412)
Dividend portion allocable to parents’
Balance of income taxed at parents top rate $ 1,238
 Parents’ top rate × 28%
Parental tax on ordinary income $ 347
Parental tax on dividend income (15% × $412) 62
Total tax $ 409

Alternative Calculation
Parents’ taxable income $200,000
Child’s taxable income (including $412 of dividends) 1,650
Parents’ taxable income with child’s investment income $201,650
Dividends of parents (3,000)
Dividends of child allocable to parents (412)
Parents’ ordinary taxable income $198,238
Parents’ tax on ordinary taxable income $ 43,771
Parents’ tax on dividends ($3,412 × 15%) 512 $ 44,283
Parents’ tax including child’s investment income $ 44,283
Parents’ taxable income without child s investment income $200,000
Parents’ dividends (3,000)

Parents ordinary taxable income $197,000

Parents’ tax on ordinary taxable income $ 43,424
Parents’ tax on dividends ($3,000 × 15%) 450 (43,874)
Parents’ tax without child s income 43,874
Parental tax and total tax $ 409
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7-1 Several items should be noted when using this problem.
• The solution allocates all of the tax preparation expense to Schedule C on the
theory that but for the Schedule C, the taxpayer would not have paid for tax
preparation.
• The income from the dog breeding activity is considered income from an
activity not engaged in for profit, a hobby, and is reported as Other Income.
The related expenses of $2,000, which are deductible to the extent of the
 $6,000 income, are deductible as miscellaneous itemized deductions on
Schedule A.
• The solution assumes that withholding is $7,000 as indicated on the corrected
W-2 form as shown in the Chapter 6 version of this problem.
• The solution assumes that the taxpayer received the Schedule K-1 found in the
Chapter 5 version of this problem.
Continuous Tax Return Problem 7-1
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7-2
a. Answer (4) is correct. Larry's expenses are related to his employment and,
therefore, are considered miscellaneous itemized deductions subject to the 2%
floor. In contrast, Cathy's expenses are related to her self-employment and as
such are reported on Schedule C and are effectively a deduction for A.G.I.
Since Cathy's expenses reduce A.G.I. they have an impact on those that Larry
can deduct since his expenses are deductible only to the extent they exceed
2% of A.G.I. Every $100 of expense that Cathy has allows $2 of Larry's
expenses to be deductible.
b. If Larry is considered a statutory employee, he is permitted to deduct all of his
employment related expenses of $3,050 as deductions for A.G.I. Such
expenses are deductible on Schedule C. If he reported the expenses on
Schedule C, the couple's taxable income would decrease by $765 computed as
follows:
Taxable income:
Larry's expenses treated as unreimbursed employee business expenses and
miscellaneous itemized deductions subject to 2% floor $ 101,805
Larry treated as statutory employee and expenses deducted for A.G.I. on
Schedule C (101,040)
 Taxable income decrease $ 1,448
c. Yes. The health insurance premiums are deductible for A.G.I. but they are not
reported on Schedule C. For 2010, the amounts do reduce self-employment
income and the offset occurs on Schedule SE. The amount of the health
insurance premium, $4,000, deduction cannot exceed Schedule C income
reduced by self-employment taxes. In this case, Schedule C income less self-
employment taxes is greater than $4,000 so the entire $4,000 is deductible for
A.G.I.
d. In Rev. Rul. 92-29, 1992-1 C.B. 20, the IRS ruled taxpayers who own a
business, farm, or rental real estate or have royalty income may allocate a
portion of the total cost of preparing their tax return to the cost of preparing
Schedule C (trade or business income), Schedule E (rental and royalty
income), or Schedule F (farm income) and deduct these costs ‘‘for’’ A.G.I.
Unfortunately, the ruling provides no guidance on how the allocation is to be
made.
Continuous Tax Return Problem 8-1
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8-2
a. Cathy has three options: (1) deduct the $1,000 expense as a qualified
education expense for AGI; (2) claim the 20% life time learning credit; or (3)
deduct the expense as a business expense on Schedule C. The best option is to
deduct the expense on Schedule C since it would not only reduce her taxable
income but also her self-employment income. These benefits exceed the other
options as the rough estimates demonstrate below.
Lifetime learning credit benefit: $200 ($1,000 × 20%).
Qualified tuition deduction benefit: $250 ($ 1,000 × marginal tax rate 25%)
Schedule C deduction: $403 [($1,000 × 15.3% self-employment tax rate =
 $153) + ($1,000 × marginal tax rate 25%) = $250]
b. The moving expenses are not deductible since the taxpayer fails the distance
test because he did not change job locations. His commute had he not moved
must exceed the old commute by more than 50 miles. In this case, both the old
and new commute would be the same since they are both measured from his
former home and his job location. Because his job location did not change,
there is no increase.
Solutions to Comprehensive Tax Return Problems
COMPREHENSIVE TAX RETURN PROBLEM 1
1. David R. and Susan L. Holman
a. In addition to personal exemptions for themselves, the Holmans may claim a
dependency exemption deduction for each of their two children.
b. The $1,500 prepayment penalty for early retirement of the Dallas home
mortgage should be treated as qualified residence interest and deducted on
Schedule A.
The other expenses associated with the sale of the Dallas home total $23,660
and should be treated as selling expenses in computing the gain on the sale of
this residence. The basis of the Dallas home is $191,600 ($177,500 original
cost plus the $14,100 in improvements). The gain on the sale of the home does
not exceed the $500,000 exclusion for joint filers and therefore is not reported
on the return.
c. In computing travel and lodging costs (excluding meals) to be reported as
moving expenses on Form 3903, the Holmans should use the automatic
mileage rate of 16.5 (2010) cents per mile for driving to California. The cost
for 2 automobiles driven 1,500 miles each is $495 (2 × 1,500 × $16.5), which
added to the $350 lodging costs totals $845.
The meal costs incurred enroute to the new home, the house-hunting
expenses, and the temporary living expenses are nondeductible moving
expenses.
d. The $8,000 paid as points to acquire the mortgage on their new home should
be deducted by the Holmans as interest expense on line 10 of Schedule A.
e. David's $75,000 of wages as an employee will effect the computation of his
self-employment tax because the sum of these wages and his self-employment
income exceed the ceiling on which the social security tax of 6.2 percent is
based.
f. David's income and expenses from the appraisal business must be reported on
Schedule C. Since (1) the prepaid rent for September 2010 was required to be
prepaid and (2) the benefits of the payment (use of the office space) do not
extend beyond 12 months after the first date the taxpayer realizes the benefit
(October), all of it can be deducted in the year of payment (2010).
David's automobile expenses are computed using the standard mileage rate of
 50 cents per mile for 5,000 business miles for a total of $2,500 ($.50 × 5,000).
Form 4562 must be used to compute David's depreciation deduction. The
entire $34,900 cost of depreciable assets is deductible under § 179 optional
expensing allowed for the year. The computer system is not considered listed
property since it is used exclusively at a regular business establishment (see §
280F(d)(4)(A)(vi)). The problem also assumes that the telephone system is not
listed property since it is not cellular or other similar telecommunications
equipment (see § 280F(d)(4)(A)(v)).
g. The Holmans' interest income must be reported on Schedule B since it
exceeds $400. Note that the $800 of interest earned on the municipal bonds is
nontaxable—but must be reported on line 8b, page 1 of Form 1040.
h. Since the dividend income exceeds $400, it must also be reported on Schedule
B. Note, however, that the General Motors stock dividend is nontaxable (and
thus not reported). Also note that it is assumed that all the dividends received
($1,000) are qualified dividends to be taxed at the 15 percent rate.
i. The Holmans must respond to the two questions in Part III, Schedule B, Form
1040, regarding financial accounts in foreign countries and foreign trusts.
j. The Holmans must report their stock transactions on Schedule D.
(1) David's basis in each share of IBM stock sold is the fair market value
(FMV) of the inherited property on the date of his uncle's death or $170 or
a total of $17,000. The sale of 100 shares for $12,000 results in a long-
term capital loss of $5,000 ($50 loss per share × 100 shares).
(2) Susan's basis in each share of General Motors stock sold is $37.25,
computed as follows:
Donor's basis ($35 per share × 1,000 shares) $35,000
Plus: Gift tax paid adjustment

Basis before stock dividend $40,000

Susan's gain to be reported on the sale of 400 shares is $15,512 [sales price
$31,200 ($78 × 400) less adjusted basis $15,688 ($39.22 × 400)]. Note that
some students may use a per-share basis of $40 because they did not consider
the impact of the 20-share stock dividend received on March 9, 2010 (see item
h above). If students are provided with all or a part of the checklist of figures
appearing at the end of these notes, they should be able to calculate the
appropriate basis for the stock sold.
(3) The Holmans' $4,500 gain on the sale of the Eastman Kodak stock must
 be reported in the current year even though the sales proceeds were not
received until January 3 of the subsequent year. Trade dates rather than
settlement dates must be used. [See Example 7 on page 16-10 of the text
and Code § 453(k)(2).]
k. Note that the solution reflects a deduction of $2,950 for state income taxes
rather than a deduction for state sales taxes. Alternatively, the taxpayers may
claim a deduction of $1,485 in sales taxes paid on the new automobile plus an
additional amount of state taxes calculated using the optional sales tax tables.
Also, note that the Holmans cannot deduct the $250 political campaign
contribution.
Their deductible interest of $24,950 includes $5,250 for the home in Dallas,
$10,200 for the home in Los Angeles and should include the $1,500 mortgage
prepayment penalty from item b. above and the $8,000 paid as points on their
new home mortgage from item d. above. The $2,200 in personal interest
($480 credit card interest + $1,720 interest on personal car loan) is not
deductible.
Since the $1,205 in miscellaneous itemized deductions ($470 + $360 = $830
unreimbursed employee expenses + $375 tax return preparation fee) does not
exceed 2 percent of A.G.I., no deduction is allowed for these expenses. There
is insufficient information to determine whether a portion of the tax
preparation expenses for the prior year might be allocable to Schedule C.
Although the Holmans can claim $82.50 (500 miles × $0.165 per mile) as
medical transportation costs, the total medical expenses $5,648 ($982 +
$2,830 + $1,535 + $218 + $83) do not exceed 7.5 percent of A.G.I.
The Holmans should claim a $7,000 contribution deduction (100 shares at $70
FMV per share) for the gift of General Motors stock to Susan's alma mater
since the stock is long-term capital gain property. Note that an independent
appraisal is not necessary for this gift because it is a publicly traded stock.
Stock market quotes for the date of the gift should suffice.
The Holmans' total itemized deductions are $50,950.
l. The Holmans should calculate the credit for child care expenses on Form
2441. The Holmans are allowed a child tax credit of $1,000.
m. The name and social security number of each child should be reported on line
6 c, page 1 of Form 1040.
n. Estimated tax payments are reported on line 62, page 2 of Form 1040. Note
that we have not calculated an underpayment penalty. This amount will vary
depending on what students estimate to have been the Holman's 2009 federal
income tax liability before credits or prepayments—an amount we failed to
provide in the fact pattern.
The return ignored the "making work pay" credit
Check Figures for Holman Tax Return
 Form 1040, page 1, line 37—A.G.I $173,628
Schedule A, Form 1040:
Interest expense deduction 24,950
Total itemized deductions allowed 50,950
Schedule C, Form 1040—Total deductions 41,225
Schedule D, Form 1040—Net long-term gain 15,012
Form 1040SE—Self-employment tax 5,047
Form 2441—Child care credit 1,000
Form 3903—Moving expenses:
Travel and lodging expenses 845
Total moving expense deduction 10,095
Form 4562—Depreciation expense 34,900
Comprehensive Tax Return Problem 1
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COMPREHENSIVE TAX RETURN PROBLEM 2
2. Richard M. and Anna K. Wilson
a. In addition to personal exemptions for themselves, the Wilsons may claim
dependency exemptions for each of their three children and for Anna's
mother, Ruth Knapp.
 Even though their son Michael is 20 years old and earned $4,750 from a
summer job, the parents are entitled to a dependency exemption because he is
a qualifying child. He meets the relationship test (he is their son); he meets the
age test (he is a full-time student less than 24); he meets the residency test (he
lives at home except for temporary absences); he meets the support test (he
does not provide more than one-half of his support) and he is a U.S. citizen
and does not file a joint return.
The Wilsons are entitled to a dependency exemption for Anna's mother
because they provide more than half of her support. Recall that parents are not
required to live with the taxpayer.
b. The state income taxes withheld from Richard's salary should be added to the
other state income taxes reported as paid in item j. below and reported on
Schedule A.
c. Anna's income and expenses from the travel agency must be reported on
Schedule C. Note that Anna is allowed to treat the amounts paid to her
daughters as deductible wage expenses even though she did not pay
employment taxes on these wages. Recall that a self-employed taxpayer is not
required to withhold or pay employment taxes on amounts paid to his or her
children 18 years of age or under. Anna should report deductible wages of
$24,000 ($22,800 + $750 + $450) on Schedule C.
Legal and professional services of $900 includes $700 for professional
services plus $200 of the $650 of tax preparation fee that was noted as
specifically allocable to her business. The remaining $450 is a miscellaneous
itemized deduction reported on Schedule A.
Because she used MACRS in 2009, Anna cannot use the automatic mileage
method for 2010. Also, note that Anna's auto expenses must be reduced by her
20 percent personal usage. Thus, 80 percent of the $650 auto insurance, 80
percent of $750 interest paid on the auto loan, and 80 percent of the $1,790
expenses for gas, oil, and repairs should be added to the $410 in parking and
tolls paid during 2010 and reported as car expenses on Schedule C ($1,790 +
$650 + $750 = $3,190 × 80% = $2,552 + $410 = $2,962).
Form 4562 must be used to compute Anna's depreciation deduction. Since the
total dollar amount of her purchases of furniture and equipment of $18,000
($8,900 + $5,700 + $1,500 + $1,600 + $300) during the year does not exceed
the amount allowed for 2010, the entire $18,000 of qualifying property should
be expensed under the § 179 optional expensing rule. Anna's depreciation
deduction for the business auto is $3,840, computed as follows:
Original cost $26,000
Business use percentage × 80%
Business use basis $20,800
MACRS mid-quarter percentage from Chapter 9, Exhibit 9-7, text p. 9-17
× 38%
 Total $ 7,904
Depreciation limit for second year of use $ 4,800
Business use percentage × 80%
Depreciation limit for the year $ 3,840
Note that Anna is limited to the lesser of 80 percent of the depreciation
otherwise allowed ($7,904) or 80 percent of the maximum depreciation
allowed in the second year of the life of her automobile ($4,800 for one placed
in service in 2009). Thus, her deduction is limited to $3,840. Note that it is
assumed that Anna did not use bonus depreciation in 2009. Also, instructors
should be aware that the second year limitation for cars placed in service in
2009 is not in the text although it can be found easily on the Internet.
d. Richard's unreimbursed expenses from the Washington, D.C. trip should be
added to his other unreimbursed employee business expenses from item (l)
and reported on Form 2106EZ. Note that 50 percent of the $130 meal costs or
$65 is disallowed. See item (l)
e. The Wilsons' interest income of $2,500 ($845 + $900 + $755) must be
reported on Schedule B since it exceeds $400.
f. Since the dividend income of $500 ($300 + $200) exceeds $400, it must be
reported on Schedule B. Also note that per the instructions we have treated all
$500 of dividends as qualifying dividends taxed at the 15 percent rate.
g. The Wilsons must respond to the two questions in Part III, Schedule B, Form
1040.
h. The Wilsons must report their stock transactions on Schedule D.
(1) The sale of 300 shares of Chevron stock results in a $4,450 long-term
capital gain [$14,950 sales proceeds – (300 × $35 basis per share =
$10,500)].
(2) The gift of 100 shares of Chevron stock to each of their children is not a
taxable event required to be reported for income tax purposes.
(3) The Wilsons' gift of 100 shares of Chevron stock to Rider University
qualifies as a deductible charitable contribution and should be reported on
Schedule A. The amount of the contribution deduction is $6,125 (100 ×
$61.25) since the stock is a long-term capital gain asset. See item j. below.
(4) The Wilsons should treat the worthlessness of the oil company stock as a
loss from a sale or exchange on the last day of the year. Consequently,
they should report a $12,000 long-term capital loss on Schedule D.
Note that the combination of the $4,450 LTCG from item (1) above and the
$12,000 LTCL from item (4) results in a $7,550 long-term capital loss. The
Wilsons' capital loss deduction is limited to $3,000, and the remaining $4,550
LTCL must be carried forward to the next year.
i. The Wilsons' income and expense from the rental condominium must be
 reported on Schedule E. Depreciation on the property should be calculated as
follows:
Depreciable basis of condo $150,000
MACRS percentage from Exhibit 9.6, text p. 9-12 × 3.636%
2010 depreciation allowed $ 5,455
When the depreciation is added to the other $21,775 of expenses from this
rental property, the Wilsons have a $10,830 loss. The loss is considered a
passive loss and reported on Form 8582. Even though rental losses are by
definition passive losses, the Wilsons are allowed to deduct the entire loss
under the rental real estate exception of Code § 469(i). Their modified AGI is
$119,168 (AGI $103,566 + rental loss $10,830 + self-employment tax
deduction $4,772) which exceeds the $100,000 threshold by $19,168 and 50
percent of this excess is $9,584. Thus the allowable amount $15,416 ($25,000
– $9,584) exceeds the loss of $10,830.
j. The Wilsons must report their itemized deductions on Schedule A.
Deductible medical expenses of $17,175 ($425 + $1,595 + $2,750 + $805 +
$115 + $11,485) should include the entire $2,750 paid to the dentist—even
though some of this amount represents a prepayment. Recall that if the
prepayment is required before the services are rendered, the entire prepayment
is deductible. Also, the medical expenses of Anna's mother ($11,485 + $115)
can be deducted by the Wilsons since the mother qualifies as a dependent.
The $2,100 state income taxes paid should be added to the $1,850 state
income taxes withheld by Richard's employer [see item b. above] and the total
of $3,950 reported on Schedule A. Note that a state sales tax deduction is not
taken because state income taxes paid provide a greater deduction.
Their deductible interest of $9,100 includes the interest on the original home
mortgage of $8,690 and the $410 interest paid on the home equity loan since
the loan amount did not exceed the $100,000 limit. None of the Wilsons'
personal interest of $1,150 [$275 credit card interest + $725 interest on
personal car loan + $150 interest from the personal use of Anna's business
auto reported in item c. above] is deductible. A portion of the tax preparation
expenses, $200, is related to preparation of Schedule C and is included with
other expenses on line 27 of Schedule C.
The Wilsons should claim a $6,125 contribution deduction (100 shares at
$61.25 FMV per share) for the gift of Exxon stock to Richard's alma mater
since the stock is long-term capital gain property. Form 8283 should be used
to report this noncash charitable contribution, describing the property and
valuation method used. Note that an independent appraisal is not be necessary
for this gift since it is a publicly traded stock. Stock market quotes for the date
of the gift should suffice.
The Wilsons' miscellaneous itemized deductions are calculated as follows:
Richard's unreimbursed expenses from trip to Washington D.C. [item d.]:
 All expenses except meals $1,110
Meals (50% of $130) 65
Total for trip $1,175
Plus expenses reported in item k. below:
Professional dues 450
Professional journals 385
Briefcase 115
Total unreimbursed employee expenses $2,125
Plus tax return preparation cost ($650 — $200 to Schedule C) 450
Total miscellaneous itemized deductions $2,575
k. Anna must treat the $11,500 contribution to her Keogh plan as a deduction in
arriving at A.G.I.
l. The Wilsons should treat the unreimbursed employee business expenses of
$2,125 [professional dues ($450), professional journals ($385) and office gifts
($115)] as miscellaneous itemized deductions subject to the 2 percent of
A.G.I. floor. Note that the tax return preparation expenses of $650 were split,
$200 allocated to Schedule C and $450 to Schedule A as a miscellaneous
itemized deduction.
m. Either a deduction or a credit could be claimed for Michael's education
expenses. However, in this case, the credit is claimed since it is worth more
than the deduction. Only the tuition of $9,350 is eligible for either the
deduction or credit since the cost of books are not qualified tuition expenses.
The deduction for the expenses is limited to $4,000 and is for A.G.I. Since the
couple's taxable income puts them in the 15 percent marginal tax bracket, the
deduction is approximately worth $600. Another option is the lifetime
learning credit. They could claim the lifetime learning credit for the expenses
of $1,163 as computed below.
Lifetime learning credit
Eligible expenses $ 9,350
Percentage ×20%
Credit before reduction $ 1,870 $ 1,870 $1,870
Reduction threshold for 2010 is $96,000 - $116,000
A.G.I. $103,566
Threshold for 2010 (96,000)
Excess $ 7,566
Percentage ($7,566 excess / $20,000 phase-out range)
×37.8%
 Reduction $ 707 (707)
Lifetime learning credit $1,163
The best alternative for the couple is the American Opportunity Credit. This
credit is 100% of the first $2,000 and 25% of the next $2,000 for a maximum
of $2,500. Also note that 40% of this credit or $1,000 is refundable unless the
child could be subject to the kiddie tax (i.e., the child is a full-time student less
than 24 and has earned income that does not exceed one-half of his or her
support). Since Michael would be subject to the kiddie tax, the couple would
be entitled to a credit of $2,500 none of which would be refundable.
n. Since they itemized their deductions for 2009, the Wilsons must include the
$130 state income tax refund in gross income for 2010 under the tax benefit
rule.
o. Estimated tax payments of $9,000 are reported on line 62, page 2 of Form
1040.
p. The name and social security number of each child should be reported on line
6c, page 1 of Form 1040. In addition, the social security number of Ruth
Knapp (Anna's mother) must be reported in order to claim her as a dependent.
The return ignores the "making work pay" credit.
Check Figures for Wilson Tax Return
Form 1040, page 1, line 37—A.G.I $103,566
(after deducting $11,500 allowed for Keogh plan contribution) Schedule A,
Form 1040:
Total medical and dental expenses 9,408
Total taxes paid 5,575
Interest expense deduction 9,100
Total itemized deductions 31,912
Schedule C, Form 1040—Total deductions 66,462
Schedule D, Form 1040—Net long-term loss (7,550)
Schedule E, Form 1040—Net loss on rental property (10,830)
Form 2106—Unreimbursed employee business expenses 2,125
Form 4562—Depreciation expense:
MACRS cost recovery on business auto 3,840
Deprecation on rental condominium 5,455
Comprehensive Tax Return Problem 2
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Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
well versed in the knowledge of the stars, he was the first who
offered sacrifices to the gods of heaven. We are also told, that in the
island just named is a mountain, where Uranus, holding the sceptre
of the world, took great pleasure in contemplating the firmament and
the stars. Among the sons of this monarch, according to the same
fiction, the two most distinguished were Atlas and Saturn, who
partitioned between them their father’s kingdom; and Atlas, who in
the division acquired the sea-coasts, is said to have excelled in
astrology: his reign is placed about sixteen hundred years before the
Christian era, and he is therefore ranked as a co-temporary of
Moses.

Such is the fabulous history of Uranus! whose name some

Christian philosophers seem desirous to perpetuate, with honour, by
attaching it to a newly-discovered world! It would be extremely
difficult if not impracticable (and, perhaps, even if practicable, the
attempt would not be advisable at this time of day,) to abolish such of
the names of the heavenly bodies as are derived from the
appellations of the false gods of antiquity. But it appears very
questionable, whether it be consistent with propriety and a due
regard to truth, to connect fable, in any manner, with established and
important realities; or whether it be right to dignify the heathen
mythology and the preposterous annals of fabulous ages, by
unnecessarily associating any thing relating to them, with objects of
genuine and useful science.

Baron Bielfeld seems to entertain similar sentiments on this head,

when (treating of the mathematics, in his “Elements of Universal
Erudition,”) he observes, that “the fables of ancient poets concerning
the stars, and,” he adds, “the fancies of some modern Christian
astronomers, who have given them names borrowed from the holy
scriptures, do not deserve the least attention, when we would treat
seriously on this science.” There is much justness in this observation
of the learned and ingenious baron: But if the application of names
derived from sacred writ, to the stars, be censurable; how much to
be condemned among Christians is the practice of giving, even in
our day, and in a science which has philosophical truth for its object,
the names of heathen deities, and fabulous persons of antiquity, to
the celestial bodies! Is it proper, can it, in any way, promote the
interests of true science or the attainment of useful knowledge, thus
to commemorate any of the absurdities of a false and impious
mythology; or any of those traditional personages of the early ages,
whose history, as handed down to us in the reveries of the ancient
poets and other profane writers, are either enveloped in fable or
inexplicable mystery? But to return from this digression:—

Mr. Lalande remarks in his great work on astronomy, which was

published in the year 1792, that Louis XIV. gave to astronomers
unceasing marks of the interest he took in their labours; and that
George III. occupied, with great delight, much of his time in his
Observatory at Richmond, as well as in Herschel’s at Slough. In his
own, in Richmond Gardens, the king of England has noble and
beautiful instruments; among which are a mural arch of 140° and 8
feet radius, made by Sisson, a sector of 12 feet, a transit telescope
of 8 feet, made by Adams, and a telescope of 10 feet of Herschel.
This grand Observatory was erected in the year 1770, under the
direction of Dr. Bevis: it is 140 feet in front, and consists of two
stories.

Such princes, then, as Louis XIV. and George III. deserve to be

honourably mentioned in the records of astronomical science: and it
was meritorious in Dr. Herschel, to dedicate to so munificent a patron
and promoter of astronomy as the latter sovereign, in the way he has
done, his important discovery of a new planet.

It is noticed by the writer of the article “Astronomy,” in Dr.

Brewster’s New Edinburgh Encyclopædia, (the first volume of which
has been very lately reprinted in Philadelphia,) that the venerable
Herschel,[85c] at the advanced age of seventy-two years, still
continued to observe the heavens with the most unwearied assiduity:
and that his contemplated “successor,” who, it is presumed, is his
son, “promises to inherit the virtues and the talents of his father.”

85a. Herschel, in calling his newly-discovered planet by the name of his

patron, was not without illustrious precedents for so doing. When Galileo
discovered the four Satellites of Jupiter, in the year 1610, he named them the
Medicea Sidera, in honour of the family of Medici, his patrons. And Cassini, who,
in the years 1671, 1672, and 1684, successively, discovered the fifth, the third, and
the first and second Satellites of Saturn, denominated these stars, Sidera
Lodoicea, in honour of Louis XIV. in whose reign, and observatory, they were first
discovered. The fourth Satellite of Saturn (but the first of them, in the order of time,
that was known) had been previously discovered by Huygens, sixteen years
before any one of the others was known to exist.

85b. So written by Lalande. There is an Asiatic island called Panay: it is one of

the Philippines, and lies, as Panchay is said to do, “to the east of Africa.”

85c.

“Herschel, with ample mind and magic glass,

Mid worlds and worlds revolving as they pass,
Pours the full cluster’d radiance from on high,
That fathomless abyss of Deity.”
Purs. of Lit. dial. the fourth.

86. Philip III. king of Spain, first offered a reward for the discovery
of the longitude, about two centuries ago; and the States of Holland,
soon after, followed his example. The Regent of France, during the
minority of Louis XV. also promised a great reward to any person
who should discover the longitude at sea.

In the year 1714, the parliament of Great Britain offered a reward

for a like discovery; and if the method, to be proposed, should
determine the longitude to twenty geographical miles, the premium
was to be twenty-thousand pounds sterling. The act of parliament
established a board of Commissioners of the Longitude. Several
other acts were passed, in the reigns of Geo. II. and III. directed to
the same purpose. Finally, in the year 1774, all those acts were
repealed, by one offering separate premiums for finding the
longitude; either by the lunar method, or by a watch keeping true
time,—or by any other method practicable at sea. This act proposes
as a reward for a time-keeper, 5000l., if it determine the longitude to
one degree or sixty geographical miles,—7500l., if to forty miles,—
and 10,000l., if to thirty miles. If the method be by improved Solar
and Lunar Tables, constructed upon Sir Isaac Newton’s theory of
gravitation, the author is to receive 5000l.; provided such Tables
shall show the distance of the Moon from the Sun and Stars within
fifteen seconds of a degree, answering to about seven minutes of
longitude, after making an allowance of a half a degree for the errors
of observation. The Commissioners have the power of giving smaller
rewards, at their discretion, to persons making any discovery for
finding the longitude at sea, though it may not be within the above
limits.

The set of Solar and Lunar Tables which were sent to the Board of
Longitude, about the year 1763, by the widow of the celebrated
astronomer, Tobias Mayer, were honoured with a reward of 3000l.
sterling, by an act of the British parliament, in consideration of their
great usefulness in finding the longitude at sea.

87. See Mr. de Zach’s great work, entitled, Tabulæ Motuum Solis
novæ et correctæ, &c.

88. For the use of such readers as may not be acquainted with the
Latin language, the following translation of the above is given, from
the original of Mr. de Zach.

“Concerning the means of determining the longitude, this is not the

proper place to treat: of one, however, the marine or nautical time-
keeper, it will not be foreign to our purpose to say something.

“It is now about thirty years, since those very ingenious makers of
time-keepers, Harrison, Cummings, Kendal, Arnold, and Mudge,
among the English,—Le Roy, and Berthoud, among the French,—
devised various and excellent ones for the use of navigators, and
brought to a great degree of perfection those marine watches, called
by the English, Time-keepers. As every one knows their use in
ascertaining the longitude, on a sea-voyage, I shall not say any thing
more of them here.—A similar time-piece, made by the celebrated
watch-maker Mr. Thomas Mudge, and often referred to in the royal
observatory of Greenwich, was, in 1784, made use of by the Hon.
Vice-Admiral (John) Campbell, commander of the naval squadron[88a]
on the Newfoundland station,—going thither and returning; and from
that time was diligently examined, at the observatory of his
Excellency Count Bruhl, in Dover street London.

“This very marine time-piece was confided to my charge, in the

year 1786, for the purpose of determining the longitudes of my
journey by land; when, called from London by his Serene Highness
the Duke of Saxe-Gotha,—the patron of all the sciences and liberal
arts, but more especially favouring astronomy,—I returned to
Germany; where the erecting of a complete and splendid
Observatory, at Gotha, was placed under my direction.[88b] I then took
with me, by the command of his Serene Highness, a watch of a
smaller size, which he usually carried in his fob,—called by the
English a Pocket-chronometer,—made by a London artist, Mr. Josiah
Emery:[88c] which, being made with the greatest accuracy and
ingenuity, yielded nothing in point of correctness to the larger
nautical time-keepers, as may be seen from three tables of their
movements by the illustrious Count Bruhl, and also of others, by Dr.
Arnold, lately established by authenticated certificates.

“About the end of the year 1786 and the beginning of 1787, I
accompanied His Serene Highness, in a tour through Germany,
France and Italy. In this journey, the longitudes of several places and
astronomical observatories were determined, from a comparison of
the time of a nautical time-keeper (which was set by the solar mean
time in Dover street, London,) with the mean time of the place; which
appears by the altitudes of the sun, by Hadley’s sextant—those
which we call corresponding, or by a comparison with it, as
transmitted to us in observatories, by those astronomers. By the
same instruments, therefore, when I arrived at Gotha, I ascertained
the longitude of the future observatory there, with the greatest care
and attention; which the Duke, going to London a few days after,
taking with him his chronometer, at length fully verified.”
88a. Here is a reference, in the text, to note 89.

88b. Here is a reference, in the text, to note 90.

 88c. Here is a reference, in the text, to note 91.

89. Sundry astronomical observations were made by this officer,

while a captain in the British navy, in the years 1757, 8, and 9; which
were reported to the admiralty on the 14th of April, 1760, by Dr.
Bradley, then astronomer-royal. See Dr. Bradley’s letter of that date,
to the Secretary of the Admiralty; published (among other papers) in
the year 1770, by order of the board of longitude, at the end of T.
Mayer’s Tables and Method of finding the Longitude; edited by Dr.
Maskelyne.

90. The Observatory, a very handsome and respectable one, was

constructed at Gotha in the year 1788, under the auspices of the
then reigning Duke of Saxe-Gotha, a zealous patron of astronomy. It
is placed on an eminence, a league from the city, and is built entirely
of hewn stone. Mr. de Zach, a native of Hungary, an experienced
astronomer, was appointed by the duke its director.

The instruments with which the Gotha Observatory is furnished

are chiefly English, as are those of most of the celebrated European
observatories. Among these, is a transit telescope, by Ramsden; and
Mr. Lalande mentions, in his Astronomie (in the year 1792,) that
there were to be added, two murals of eight feet radius, an entire
circle of eight feet diameter, a great zenith-sector, &c. but that Mr.
Ramsden, who was employed to make them, found great difficulty in
supplying all the demands for instruments, which his great reputation
occasioned.

It is well known, that the first improvements in astronomical

instruments took place in Great-Britain; and both Lalande and de
Zach, as well as other foreign astronomers of eminence, have done
ample justice to the superior ingenuity and skill of the artists of that
country, in this department of mechanism. The ingenious Mr.
Edmund Stone, in his Supplement to the English Translation of Mr.
Bion’s Construction and Use of Mathematical Instruments,
(published in 1758, nearly forty years after he translated Mr. Bion’s
work into English,) observes—that, having set about the business
(the translating of this latter work,) he soon perceived that many
French instruments were excelled by some of the English of the
same kind, in contrivance; and that, as to workmanship, he never did
see one French instrument so well framed and divided as some
English have been. “For example,” says Mr. Stone, “Mr. Sutton’s
quadrants, made above one hundred years ago,” (before the middle
of the seventeenth century,) “are the finest divided instruments in the
world; and the regularity and exactness of the vast number of circles
drawn upon them, is highly delightful to behold. The mural quadrant
at the Royal Observatory, at Greenwich, far exceeds that of the
Royal Observatory at Paris. Also, the theodolites of Messrs. Sisson
and Heath, the clocks and watches of Messrs. Graham, Tompion
and Quare, the orreries of Mr. Graham and Mr. Wright, and many
more curiously contrived and well executed mathematical
instruments which I could mention, far exceed those of the French,
or indeed any other nation in the world.—The making good
mathematical instruments,” continues Mr. Stone, “is almost peculiar
to the English; as well as their skill in all branches of the
mathematics and natural philosophy has been generally superior to
that of other nations.”

Without wishing to derogate from the justly acquired fame of

British artists, for the excellence of their mathematical and
astronomical instruments, M. Rittenhouse’s skill and accuracy,
displayed in such as he made, stand unsurpassed by similar works
of their most celebrated mechanicians: while his profoundness in
astronomical science, and his wonderful ingenuity of invention and
contrivance, manifested in the construction of his Orrery, leave him
without a rival, in the two-fold character of an Astronomer and a
Mechanic. The idea of the fine planetarian machine constructed by
Mr. Rowley, under the name of the Orrery, and supposed to have
been invented by Mr. Graham, is said to have been taken from a
very similar machine, of which that eminent philosopher, Dr. Stephen
Hales, had the credit of being the original contriver. But Mr.
Rittenhouse was, incontrovertibly, the Inventor, as well as the Maker,
of that sublimely-conceived and unrivalled machine, which bears the
name of the Rittenhouse-Orrery: and Dr. Morse, in noticing some of
the more prominent productions of scientific ingenuity and skill, in
America, observes, with good reason, that “every combination of
machinery may be expected from a country, a native son of which,”
(referring in a note to “David Rittenhouse, Esq. of Pennsylvania,”)
“reaching this inestimable object in its highest point, has epitomised
the motions of the spheres that roll throughout the universe.” See
Morse’s American Geography, first published in 1789.

91. The accuracy of some of the fine pocket-chronometers

constructed by the celebrated artists named by Mr. de Zach, and by
some others, such, for instance, as the one made by Emery for the
count de Bruhl, mentioned in the text, has rendered them, on some
occasions, useful assistants in making astronomical observations on
land. Dr. Rittenhouse occasionally used one for such purposes,
many years. It was an excellent pocket-watch, made by Le Roy of
Paris for the late Matthias Barton, Esq. who was induced to let Dr.
Rittenhouse have it. After his decease, this watch was gratuitously
restored to its former proprietor, by Mrs. Rittenhouse’s desire, and as
a testimonial of what she knew to have been her late husband’s
regard for his nephew. Mr. M. Barton bequeathed it, by his last will,
to his brother and physician, Dr. Benjamin S. Barton.

92. The Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, for

the year 1729, contain an article that furnishes additional evidence of
the extraordinary skill and ingenuity manifested by English artists in
the construction of watches, as well as other pieces of mechanism
which require great accuracy in the workmanship: it forms a pleasant
little narrative in an eulogium on Father Sebastian,[92a] a Carmelite
Friar of singular mechanical ingenuity; and it indicates, at the same
time, that the repeating-watch was invented in England. The story is
thus told:—

“Charles II. roy d’Angleterre, avoit envoyé au feu roi deux Montres
à Repetition; les premieres qu’on ait vues en France. Elles ne
pouvoient s’ouvrir que par une secrete précaution des ouvriers
Anglois, pour cacher la nouvelle construction, et s’en assurer
d’autant plus la gloire et le profit. Les montres se dérangérent, et
furent remises entre les mains de M. Martineau, horloger du roi, qui
n’y put travailler faute de les sçavoir ouvrir. Il dit a M. Colbert, et c’est
un trait de courage digne d’etre remarqué, qu’il ne connoissoit qu’un
jeune Carme capable d’ouvrir les montres, ques’il n’y réussissoit
pas, il falloit se resoudre à les renvoyer en Angleterre. M. Colbert
consentit qu’il les donnât au P. Sebastien, qui les ouvrit assez
promptement, et de plus les raccommoda sans sçavoir qu’ elles
étoient au roi, ni combien étoit important par ses circonstances
l’ouvrage dont on l’avoit chargé.”
92a. His baptismal name was John Truchet.

93. This great man, who was the son of Christian Huygens lord of
Zuylichem, a counsellor of the prince of Orange, was born in the
year 1629, at Zuylichem, in the province of Guelderland, the country
of the ancestors of Rittenhouse. Having resided for some time in
France, he quitted that country on account of his religion, in 1684, in
consequence of the revocation of the edict of Nantes. He died in
Holland in 1695, at the age of sixty-six years.

Galileo, who was a native of Florence, lived to the age of eighty-

seven years. He died fifty-three years before Huygens; and about
fourteen before Huygens’s application of the pendulum to clocks, so
as to effect an isochronal regulation of their movements. Galileo’s
use of the pendulum, for the purpose of measuring time, seems to
have been nothing more than the annexation of a short pendulum to
clock-work.

94. This celebrated naturalist and physician, who was styled by

Boerhaave, Monstrum Eruditionis, was born at Zurich in 1516: He
was, probably, of the same family as that of the late Solomon Gesner
the poet, who was a native of the same city, and appeared more
than two centuries afterwards. Conrad Gesner was so distinguished
a writer, as a naturalist, that he was called the Pliny of Germany. A
splendid edition of Pliny’s Natural History, under the title of the
Historia Mundi of Caius Plinius Secundus, with a dedication by
Erasmus to Stanislaus Turzo, bishop of Olmutz, was printed at Basil,
by Froben, so early as 1525. This copy of Pliny (which is now very
rare) having been published in the vicinity of Conrad Gesner, during
his youth, that circumstance may have prompted him to direct his
attention to those pursuits in science, which distinguished this
learned Swiss.

95. About two centuries after that period when the sciences had
begun to revive and the mechanical arts to flourish, the construction
of clocks appears to have been much improved. And in the reign of
Henry VIII. a stately clock was made by an artist, the initials of
whose name are “N. O.” in the year 1540, and placed in the royal
palace at Hampton-Court. This not only shewed the hour of the day,
but an orrery-part, connected with it, exhibited the motion of the sun
through all the signs of the zodiac, and also of the moon, with other
matters depending on them. A similar one, in the cathedral of
Lunden in Denmark, is mentioned by Heylin: But Martin, in his
Philosophia Britannica, speaks of a piece of clock-work in the
cathedral of Strasburg, in Alsace; “in which, besides the clock-part, is
the celestial globe or sphere, with the motions of the sun, moon,
planets and fixed stars, &c.” This was finished in the year 1574, and
is represented as being much superior to a pompous clock at Lyons,
in France, which also has an orrery department.

96. The first pendulum-clock made in England, was in the year

1662, by Mr. Fromanteel, a Dutchman.

In the library-hall of the Philadelphia Library-Company, is one of

the clocks made by that artist, having this inscription engraven on its
face, “Johannes Fromanteel, Londini, fecit;” but without any date.
This clock was a donation to the library-company, in the year 1804,
by Mr. Samuel Hudson, of Philadelphia, whose ancestor purchased it
at an auction in London, after the restoration of king Charles II. The
traditional account of it is, that it belonged, originally, to the Cromwell
family; and, when presented, was said to be one hundred and forty
years old: but it could not have been the property of the protector,
Cromwell, the time of whose death was between three and four
years anterior to Fromanteel’s construction of a pendulum-clock.

97. Besides the testimony of so distinguished an astronomer as

Mr. de Zach, already given, respecting the very great accuracy to
which time-keepers have been brought, the following translation,
taken from what the celebrated Lalande has said in his treatise Des
Horloges Astronomiques, (in the second volume of his Astronomie,)
furnishes some curious and interesting facts on that subject.

“Short (the mathematical instrument maker,) upon the occasion of

the transit of mercury over the sun observed in 1753, assures us that
he had found by many observations, that his clock had not varied
more than one second, from the 22d of February to the 6th of May
(Philos. Trans. 1753, p. 200;) so that, with a like pendulum, it is
possible to obtain an exactness which, till this time, was thought
incredible. There are English astronomers who have assured me,”
continues Lalande, “that pendulum-clocks have been made which
did not vary more than five″ in a year:[97a] but that does not appear to
me to be yet established as a fact; the oils that one is obliged to use
in them are sufficient, by the change of consistency they undergo, to
prevent such preciseness. The count de Bruhl, a great amateur and
a perfect connoisseur also, on the subject of time-pieces, shewed
me in London a diary of the going of two pendulums of Mudge, one
of the most celebrated clock-makers in London: in one, there was a
difference of half a second a day, between winter and summer; and
in the other a second. Mr. Aubert has a pendulum made by Shelton,
which varies also nearly a second in the day, in extreme seasons.
Picard, in 1671, had a clock which did not lose a second in two
months. But, whatever may have been, since that period, the skill of
the clock-makers of Paris, we cannot obtain such exactness, but by
mere accident and an equality of temperature in the atmosphere that
is very rare: now, the correctness of our clocks is a necessary
consequence of their principles; but these do not go so far. Mr.
Emery has observed two clocks beat the same second, during three
months; they were, however, very near to each other, and probably
had some influence on one another by means of their foot-board or
support.”
 97a. Even watches have been already brought to an inconceivable degree of
exactness. Mr. Arnold and Mr. Emery made some, in the year 1786, which did not
vary one second in a voyage of an hundred leagues.

98. This gentleman’s name is connected with another

circumstance in relation to Mr. D. Rittenhouse, which deserves to be
noticed. He is in possession of a finely-graduated thermometer,
made by our Philosopher; on the scale of which is engraved, by him,
the record of a memorable fact concerning the climate of
Pennsylvania, referring by a mark to 22° below 0, of Fahrenheit’s
scale; viz.—“Jan. 2. 1762—Great Cold in Pennsylvania.” This fact
was ascertained by Mr. Rittenhouse, from a reference to the
accurate Messrs. Masons and Dixon’s Journal; in which, such was
stated to have been the degree of cold in the forks of the Brandywine
(about thirty miles westward, and very little to the southward, from
Philadelphia,) on the day mentioned.

Mr. Rittenhouse had noticed, that, at his Norriton Observatory, (in

lat. 40° 9′ 31″ N.) the mercury in Fahrenheit’s thermometer, not
exposed to the sun-shine but open to the air, was at 94½°, on the 5th
of July 1769; “which,” says he, “was the greatest height it had ever
been observed to rise to, at that place.” But the writer is informed by
a judicious and attentive observer, that at Lancaster, Pennsylvania,
which is in lat. 40° 2′ 39″ N. (the long. of this borough-town is 5h 1′ 4″
W. from Greenw.) the mercury rose by Fahrenheit’s scale, on the 7th
of July, 1811, to 97½°. Admitting this to be correct, if 1½° be then
deducted, for the extra heat of so large a town as Lancaster in
comparison with a country-situation, there is in this case the great
range of 118° by Fahrenheit’s scale, for the extremes of heat and
cold in Pennsylvania.

The writer brought with him, from England, a meteorological diary

kept in London, during the severe frost there, from the 7th day of
January, 1776, to the 28th of the same month, both days inclusive.
The greatest cold, during that period, was 15° and it is thus noted, in
respect to the state of the atmosphere at the time; “Clear sky—
intense cold—wind west.” The mercury rose on one day, within that
time, to 34°. The mean degree of cold, in the same period, was there
26¾°.

The greatest cold at Philadelphia, during the same days of

January, 1776, was at 17°, but the mercury rose there, on one of
those days, to 48°. The mean degree of cold at Philadelphia, in this
corresponding period of time, was 29⅓°; being about 2½° warmer
(or rather, less cold,) than the general temperature of the weather in
London, at the same time, in what was there called a “severe frost.”
Eighty-five degrees of Fahrenheit’s scale is considered as a very
extraordinary heat, in London: consequently, a range of 68° may be
presumed to reach the extremes of heat and cold in England, in the
latitude of nearly 52° N.[98a]

Notwithstanding the extremes of heat and cold, which thus appear

in the climate of Pennsylvania, Mr. Jefferson remarks (in his Notes
on Virginia,) that these extremes are greater at Paris than at
Williamsburg, the hottest part of Virginia. Yet Williamsburg, which is
only about 2¾° to the southward of Philadelphia, is nearly 11¾°
further south than Paris.
98a. Since writing the above, the author has ascertained, that in London,
during the four last years of the last century, Six’s thermometer, out of doors,
averaged 49.6; that on the hottest day within that period, the mercury rose to 86;
and that it fell, on the coldest day, to 4.

99. See a description of this Chronometer, in the Appendix.

100. Mr. Stanton died at Philadelphia, the 28th of June, 1770,

aged sixty-two years. He was, for above forty years, a distinguished
preacher among the people called Quakers; and is reputed to have
been a man, “who, from his youth, had been a conspicuous example
of Christian meekness, humility, and self-denial; a zealous promoter
of the cause of religion, and the essential good of mankind.”

Some elegiac verses, under the title of a “poetic tribute” to the

memory of this worthy man,—from the pen of a lady in Philadelphia,
—were published in the Port Folio, for April 1813.
 101. This letter contains, likewise, a short narrative of an
occurrence which excited much feeling, and claimed a considerable
portion of the public attention, at the time. As Mr. Rittenhouse’s
account of the transaction referred to, will serve to shew that he was
not an indifferent spectator of the political events of that early day;
and, further, that he was zealously disposed to support the legitimate
authority of the government, in order to suppress illegal and
disorderly proceedings, subversive of the laws and dangerous to the
public peace and safety; this part of his letter to Mr. Barton (of the
16th of February, 1764,) is also presented to the reader.

It will be recollected that what was called the Paxton Riot in

Pennsylvania, in the year 1763, was occasioned by an attempt made
by many of the inhabitants of a district in the upper end of Lancaster
(now Dauphin) county, called Paxton, with some of their neighbours,
to destroy a number of Indians resident in and near that county; who
were extremely obnoxious to the Paxton people, by reason of the
supposed treachery, if not actual hostility, of these Indians to the
settlers on the Paxton frontier, in the war that had then recently
terminated. These unfortunate Indians had, nevertheless, uniformly
professed themselves to be friendly to the English, in that war; and
were so reputed by the government of Pennsylvania: but finding
themselves, notwithstanding, threatened with extermination by “the
Paxton Boys” (as they were then called,)—by whom a few old men,
women, and children had been destroyed, shortly before, at their
homes,—they sought the protection of the government. Part of them
were, accordingly, placed in the public prison in Lancaster, and the
remainder at the barracks in Philadelphia, as places of security.
Those in Lancaster, to the number of fourteen or fifteen, were soon
after, as is well known, killed by the Paxton people, one of the prison
doors having been forcibly broken open by them. The remnant of
these persecuted Indians, who were in Philadelphia, were more
fortunate than their brethren; they escaped the horrors of
assassination: And it is to the expedition against these wretched
fugitives—a mere handful of men, unarmed, and claiming from
Christians an asylum from massacre,—that Mr. Rittenhouse refers in
his letter.
 “You are no doubt, long before this time, well acquainted,” said our
young philosopher, “with every particular of the Paxtonian expedition
to Philadelphia: nor need I tell you, that whatever information you
may have through the channel of ——, will be abominably corrupt.
About fifty of the scoundrels marched by my work-shop—I have seen
hundreds of Indians travelling the country, and can with truth affirm,
that the behaviour of these fellows was ten times more savage and
brutal than theirs. Frightening women, by running the muzzles of
their guns through windows, swearing and hallooing; attacking men
without the least provocation; dragging them by the hair to the
ground, and pretending to scalp them; shooting a number of dogs
and fowls;—these are some of their exploits.

“I received a letter from sister E. soon after the alarm at

Philadelphia was over, and will give you a part of it, which I doubt not
will be agreeable to you.”—It is as follows.

—“On Monday morning between one and two o’clock, an express

came to the governor, informing that the rebels were on their way,
and that a great number of them were on this side the White Horse.
There was one express after another, till there was certain
intelligence that some of them were at Germantown. When the first
express came, the bells were rung, the drums beat, and the
constables were ordered to go from house to house, to knock up the
inhabitants, and to bid them put candles at their doors: it had the
appearance of all the houses being illuminated. Before day, there
were above twenty men met at J. J.’s, and chose their officers.
Before night they were increased to nearly an hundred; as were
likewise most of the other companies: E—— and all our men were in
captain Wood’s company. They all appeared to be in high spirits, and
desirous to meet the rebels. On Tuesday, when the mayor and the
other gentlemen set off for Germantown, the heads of the companies
begged of them not to comply with any dishonourable terms, and
told them—“Gentlemen, we are ready to go wherever you may
command us; and we had much rather you would let us treat with
them (the rebels) with our guns.”—On their return, there was a
general murmur among the companies against the proceedings of
our great men; they knew it, and there was a long harangue made by
Mr. Chew: but it did not answer the end. On Wednesday morning I
went to —-—, as usual; and on my return home, I stopped at our
friend H. J.’s; when, on a sudden, the alarm-gun was fired, the bells
began to ring, and the men called “to arms,” as loud as possible. I
cannot describe, my dear brother, how I felt: we ran to the door,
when to add to my fright, I saw E——, amidst hundreds of others,
run by with his gun. They met at the court-house, formed themselves
into regular companies, and marched up Second-street as far as the
barracks; when they found it was a false alarm.

“It was a pleasing, though melancholy sight, to view the activity of

our men. In less than a quarter of an hour, they were all on their
march,—it is supposed above a thousand of them; and by all
accounts, there were not ten —— among them. It was the common
cry, while our men were parading—“What! not one —— among
us!”—Instead of joining with others, they would sneak into corners,
and applaud the “Paxton-boys.” Their behaviour on this occasion has
made them appear blacker than ever.”

Concerning these extraordinary transactions, to which much

importance was attached in their day, and which, moreover,
constitute a curious and interesting occurrence in the history of
Pennsylvania, in the time of our philosopher, the testimony of
another respectable witness is added; a person, besides, who bore a
principal part in arresting the progress of the insurrection referred to.
On the 2d of June, 1765, Dr. Franklin, who was then in London,
wrote a letter to the celebrated Henry Home, lord Kames, in which
the following interesting circumstances are related, respecting what
was called the Paxton Expedition: this letter is inserted entire in lord
Woolhousie’s Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Lord Kames. The
Doctor therein says—“In December (1763,) we had two insurrections
of the back inhabitants of our province, by whom twenty poor Indians
were murdered, that had from the first settlement of the province
lived among us, under the protection of our government. This gave
me a good deal of employment; for, as the rioters threatened further
mischief, and their actions seemed to be approved by an increasing
party, I wrote a pamphlet, entitled A Narrative, &c. to strengthen the
hands of our weak government, by rendering the proceedings of the
rioters unpopular and odious. This had a good effect: and
afterwards, when a great body of them with arms marched towards
the capital in defiance of the government, with an avowed resolution
to put to death one hundred and forty Indian converts, then under its
protection, I formed an association at the governor’s request, for his
and their defence, we having no militia. Near one thousand of the
citizens accordingly took arms: Governor Penn made my house for
some time his head-quarters, and did every thing by my advice; so
that, for about forty-eight hours, I was a very great man, as I had
been once some years before, in a time of public danger. But the
fighting face we put on, and the reasonings we used with the
insurgents, (for I went, at the request of the governor and council,
with three others, to meet and discourse them,) having turned them
back, and restored quiet to the city, I became a less man than ever;
for I had, by these transactions, made myself many enemies among
the populace.”

102. .fm rend=t The writer of these memoirs well remembers to

have heard Mr. Rittenhouse, when fully matured in years, speak of
the pleasure he derived from the reading of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s
Progress, while a youth. It is, certainly, no faint compliment to the
“well-told tale” of that “ingenious dreamer,” that it engaged the
attention of David Rittenhouse, even at a very early period of his life:
and that compliment is greatly enhanced by the following beautiful
invocation, addressed to the long-since departed spirit of the
humble, yet persecuted, the pious, yet fanciful Bunyan, by the
amiable Cowper:—

“Oh thou, whom, borne on fancy’s eager wing,

Back to the season of life’s happy spring,
I pleas’d remember, and, while mem’ry yet
Holds fast her office here, can ne’er forget;
Ingenious dreamer, in whose well-told tale
Sweet fiction and sweet truth alike prevail;
Whose hum’rous vein, strong sense, and simple style;
 Witty, and well-employ’d, and, like thy Lord,
Speaking in parables his slighted word;
I name thee not, lest so despis’d a name
Should move a sneer at thy deserved fame:
Yet, ev’n in transitory life’s late day,
That mingles all my brown with sober gray,
Revere the man, whose Pilgrim marks the road,
And guides the Progress of the soul to God.”
Cowper’s Tirocinium.

The celebrated Benjamin Franklin too, in the account of his Life

written by himself, informs us, that the Pilgrim’s Progress (which
Franklin there, inadvertently, calls “Bunyan’s Voyages,”) was a
favourite book of his, in his earlier years. “I have since learned,” says
the Doctor, “that it has been translated into almost all the languages
of Europe; and, next to the Bible, I am persuaded, it is one of the
books which has had the greatest spread.”

103. This was about the year 1764.

104. In the earlier part of this interval of time, and before he

became more seriously engaged in those great works and
researches, the construction of his Orrery, and the Observation of
the Transit of Venus with the operations preparatory to it, which
about that time engrossed his attention, he occasionally amused
himself with matters rather speculative than practical: though he very
seldom devoted any considerable portion of his time to things which
he did not consider as being in some degree useful.

The following is one of those instances in which his active mind

was diverted from severer studies, to some objects of a more playful
nature.

In the year 1767, some ingenious country-gentleman published in

Messrs. Hall and Sellers’s paper, under the signature of T.T. the
result of calculations he had made on Archimedes’s famous vaunting
assertion, Δος που στω, και την γην κινησω. Mr. Rittenhouse
published, some short time after, calculations (or rather the result of
calculations) of his own, on the same problem. This appeared in a
piece under the signature of “A Mechanic,” dated the 8th of October,
1767: and a reply to it, by T. T. dated October the 29th, appeared in
the same paper. These little speculations will be found in the
Appendix. It is not improbable that Mr. Rittenhouse, under the
disguise of “A Mechanic,” appeared in print on this occasion, for the
purpose of drawing the attention of ingenious men to subjects of this
nature.

105. It was between the years 1766 and 1770—the interval of time
above mentioned,—that the two important circumstances occurred,
which gave great celebrity to the reputation of Mr. Rittenhouse, as an
astronomer: these were the Construction of the Orrery invented by
him, and the admirable result of his observations of the Transit of
Venus, as published in the Philosophical Society’s Transactions.

Amidst those objects of importance in which he was principally

occupied, he occasionally amused himself with matters of minor
consequence. Among other things, he contrived and made, in the
beginning of the year 1767, an ingeniously contrived thermometer,
constructed on the principle of the expansion and contraction of
metals, by heat and cold, respectively. This instrument had, under
glass, a face upon which was a graduated semi-circle: the degrees
of heat and cold corresponded with those of Fahrenheit’s
thermometer; and these were also correspondently designated, by
an index, moving on the centre of the arch. Its square (or rather
parallelogramical) form, its flatness and thinness, and its small size
—together with its not being liable to the least sensible injury or
irregularity, from any position in which it might be placed,—rendered
it safely portable; insomuch, that it could be conveniently carried in
the pocket.

He presented one of these metaline Thermometers to Dr. Peters,

in June 1767: Another, which he made for himself, was a
considerable time in the hands of Mr. Barton, at Lancaster. They
were found to agree very well with Fahrenheit’s. In a letter to Mr.
Barton, dated the 26th of July 1769, he said—“You will oblige me by
sending the metaline thermometer by..., and let me know the
greatest height you have seen it, this season, Fahrenheit’s
thermometer, in my Observatory, not exposed to the sunshine but
very open to the air, was 94½° on the 5th of this month, at 3 in the
afternoon; which is the highest I have ever seen it.”

106. The Rev. Ebenezer Kinnersley, A. M. Professor of English and

Oratory in the college of Philadelphia. This venerable and worthy
man, who was a clergyman of the Baptist church, was a very
eminent Electrician. In this branch of philosophy, he was an able
lecturer and ingenious experimentalist: and perhaps to no person—
at least in America,—were his cotemporaries more indebted, than to
him, for the light which he shed, at a very early day, on this
interesting and pleasing science.

107. According to the American historian, Marshall, Lord Berkeley

assigned his interest in the Jersies to Penn and his three associates,
in the year 1674; and they, soon perceiving the inconvenience of a
joint property, divided the province, in 1676, with Carteret, who still
retained his interest: to him they released East-Jersey; and received
from him, in return, a conveyance for the western part of the
province. The Duke of York resigned the government of East Jersey
to the proprietor, retaining that of West-Jersey as an appendage to
New-York, until August 1680; when, on a reference to Sir William
Jones, the title was decided against the Duke: after which, he
formally released all claim upon East-Jersey. Soon after this,
Carteret transferred his rights to Penn, and eleven other persons of
the same religious persuasion, who immediately conveyed one half
of their interest to James Drummond, Earl of Perth, and eleven
others; and these, in March 1683, obtained a conveyance from the
Duke of York directly to themselves.—During these transactions,
continual efforts were made to re-annex the Jerseys to the province
of New-York. [See Marshall’s Introduction to the Life of Washington,
ch. vi.]

108. There will not be another transit of Venus over the Sun’s disk,
until the 8th of December, 1874; which, it is probable few persons