HomeSafe, an accrual basis, calendar year corporation, sells and installs home alarm systems. The contract price of a system includes four free service calls. HomeSafe's cost of each call is $75. At the end of 2017, HomeSafe accrued a $48,900 expense and a $48,900 liability for future service calls for systems sold in 2016. By September 15, 2018, HomeSafe had made 362 service calls for 2017 systems; from September 16 through December 31, 2018, HomeSafe made 122 additional service calls for 2017 systems.
a. If HomeSafe has not adopted the recurring item exception as its method of accounting for service calls, how much of the $48,900 accrued expense can it deduct in 2017 and 2018?
b. If HomeSafe has adopted the recurring item exception as its method of accounting for service calls, how much of the $48,900 accrued expense can it deduct in 2017 and 2018?