ECONOMIC SUBSTANCE refers to the application of income tax laws, i.e., the substance of the transaction, rather than its form, determines the tax consequences, with few exceptions. The "form" of a transaction is only the label the interested parties attach to their arrangement. For instance, an arrangement might be called a compensation agreement, loan, lease or sale. Documents may support the form, but the courts are not concerned with these labels or papers that purport to govern the transaction -- they focus on its substance. The "substance over form" analysis is used to dissect self-serving transactions between parties, including loans and payments to family members; transactions between related corporations and their shareholders, partnerships and their partners; and between trusts and their beneficiaries. For instance, sale of a home by a parent to a child may be re-characterized by the court as a gift, if the child never pays for it. Related-party transactions provide fertile territory for self-dealing, with the tax benefit as the real motivating purpose, disguised by the form of the transaction. In contrast, arms-length transactions with independent third parties are far less vulnerable.

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MASTER BUDGET formalizes the whole budget system into one single final document in which all the operational budgets flow; its goal is to draft the main economic and financial statements. However, dependent upon the individual or geographic location, is variously contains the cash budget only; or the income statement and the balance sheet combined; or the income statement and the balance sheet and the cash budget combined.

LANDING COST is the initial charges for landing imported goods, such as those for receiving goods from dockside vessels or from barges to lighters. They may also cover wharfage or delivery from the dock to land conveyance or warehouse.

 

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