Publication 584-B: Business Casualty, Disaster, and Theft Loss Workbook; Main Contents

This is archived information that pertains only to the 2004 Tax Year. If you
are looking for information for the current tax year, go to the Tax Prep Help Area.

Table of Contents

How To Use This Workbook

You can use this workbook by following these five steps.

Read Publication 547 to learn about the tax rules for casualties, disasters, and thefts.
Know the definitions of adjusted basis and fair market value, discussed below.
Fill out Schedules 1 through 6.
Read the instructions for Form 4684.
Fill out Form 4684 using the information you entered in Schedules 1 through 6.

Use the following chart to find out how you use these schedules to fill out Form 4684.

Take what's in...	And enter it on Form 4684...
Column 1	Line 19
Column 2	Line 19
Column 3	Line 19
Column 4	Line 20
Column 5	Line 21
Column 6	Line 23
Column 7	Line 24
Column 8	Line 25
Column 9	Line 26
Column 10	Line 27

Adjusted basis. Adjusted basis usually means original cost plus improvements, minus depreciation allowed or allowable (including any section 179 expense deduction), amortization, depletion, etc. If you did not acquire the property by purchasing it, your basis is determined as discussed in Publication 551, Basis of Assets.

Fair market value.

Fair market value is the price for which you could sell your property to a willing buyer, when neither of you has to sell or buy and both of you know all the relevant facts. When filling out Schedules 1 through 6, you need to know the fair market value of the property immediately before and immediately after the disaster or casualty.

Deduction limits. If your casualty or theft loss involved a home you used for business or rented out, your deductible loss may be limited. See the instructions for Section B of Form 4684. If the casualty or theft loss involved property used in a passive activity, see Form 8582, Passive Activity Loss Limitations, and its instructions.

The casualty and theft loss deduction for employee property, when added to your job expenses and most other miscellaneous itemized deductions on Schedule A (Form 1040), must be reduced by 2% of your adjusted gross income. Employee property is property used in performing services as an employee.

How To Get Tax Help

You can get help with unresolved tax issues, order free publications and forms, ask tax questions, and get more information from the IRS in several ways. By selecting the method that is best for you, you will have quick and easy access to tax help.

Contacting your Taxpayer Advocate. If you have attempted to deal with an IRS problem unsuccessfully, you should contact your Taxpayer Advocate.

The Taxpayer Advocate represents your interests and concerns within the IRS by protecting your rights and resolving problems that have not been fixed through normal channels. While Taxpayer Advocates cannot change the tax law or make a technical tax decision, they can clear up problems that resulted from previous contacts and ensure that your case is given a complete and impartial review.

To contact your Taxpayer Advocate:

Call the Taxpayer Advocate at 1–877–777–4778.
Call the IRS at 1–800–829–1040.
Call, write, or fax the Taxpayer Advocate office in your area.
Call 1–800–829–4059 if you are a TTY/TDD user.

For more information, see Publication 1546, The Taxpayer Advocate Service of the IRS.

Free tax services. To find out what services are available, get Publication 910, Guide to Free Tax Services. It contains a list of free tax publications and an index of tax topics. It also describes other free tax information services, including tax education and assistance programs and a list of TeleTax topics.

Personal computer. With your personal computer and modem, you can access the IRS on the Internet at www.irs.gov. While visiting our web site, you can select:

Frequently Asked Tax Questions (located under Taxpayer Help & Ed) to find answers to questions you may have.
Forms & Pubs to download forms and publications or search for forms and publications by topic or keyword.
Fill-in Forms (located under Forms & Pubs) to enter information while the form is displayed and then print the completed form.
Tax Info For You to view Internal Revenue Bulletins published in the last few years.
Tax Regs in English to search regulations and the Internal Revenue Code (under United States Code (USC)).
Digital Dispatch and IRS Local News Net (both located under Tax Info For Business) to receive our electronic newsletters on hot tax issues and news.
Small Business Corner (located under Tax Info For Business) to get information on starting and operating a small business.

You can also reach us with your computer using File Transfer Protocol at ftp.irs.gov.

TaxFax Service. Using the phone attached to your fax machine, you can receive forms and instructions by calling 703–368–9694. Follow the directions from the prompts. When you order forms, enter the catalog number for the form you need. The items you request will be faxed to you.

Phone. Many services are available by phone.

Ordering forms, instructions, and publications. Call 1–800–829–3676 to order current and prior year forms, instructions, and publications.
Asking tax questions. Call the IRS with your tax questions at 1–800–829–1040.
TTY/TDD equipment. If you have access to TTY/TDD equipment, call 1–800–829– 4059 to ask tax questions or to order forms and publications.
TeleTax topics. Call 1–800–829–4477 to listen to pre-recorded messages covering various tax topics.

Evaluating the quality of our telephone services. To ensure that IRS representatives give accurate, courteous, and professional answers, we evaluate the quality of our telephone services in several ways.

A second IRS representative sometimes monitors live telephone calls. That person only evaluates the IRS assistor and does not keep a record of any taxpayer's name or tax identification number.
We sometimes record telephone calls to evaluate IRS assistors objectively. We hold these recordings no longer than one week and use them only to measure the quality of assistance.
We value our customers' opinions. Throughout this year, we will be surveying our customers for their opinions on our service.

Request most forms at post offices and libraries.

Walk-in. You can walk in to many post offices, libraries, and IRS offices to pick up certain forms, instructions, and publications. Also, some libraries and IRS offices have:

An extensive collection of products available to print from a CD-ROM or photocopy from reproducible proofs.
The Internal Revenue Code, regulations, Internal Revenue Bulletins, and Cumulative Bulletins available for research purposes.

Mail. You can send your order for forms, instructions, and publications to the Distribution Center nearest to you and receive a response within 10 workdays after your request is received. Find the address that applies to your part of the country.

Western part of U.S.: Western Area Distribution Center Rancho Cordova, CA 95743–0001
Central part of U.S.: Central Area Distribution Center P.O. Box 8903 Bloomington, IL 61702–8903
Eastern part of U.S. and foreign addresses: Eastern Area Distribution Center P.O. Box 85074 Richmond, VA 23261–5074

CD-ROM. You can order IRS Publication 1796, Federal Tax Products on CD-ROM, and obtain:

Current tax forms, instructions, and publications.
Prior-year tax forms, instructions, and publications.
Popular tax forms which may be filled in electronically, printed out for submission, and saved for recordkeeping.
Internal Revenue Bulletins.

The CD-ROM can be purchased from National Technical Information Service (NTIS) by calling 1–877–233–6767 or on the Internet at www.irs.gov/cdorders. The first release is available in mid-December and the final release is available in late January.

IRS Publication 3207, Small Business Resource Guide, is an interactive CD-ROM that contains information important to small businesses. It is available in mid-February. You can get one free copy by calling 1–800–829–3676 or visiting the IRS web site at www.irs.gov/prod/bus_info/sm_bus/sm bus-cd.html.