Tax on sell of home with less than 2 years ownership question?
Too Old For Idol asked:
Preparing to take taxes to pro. Used turbotax to get preliminary idea of where we stand this year, but having trouble with home sale in the program.
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Preparing to take taxes to pro. Used turbotax to get preliminary idea of where we stand this year, but having trouble with home sale in the program.
If I owned home for 18 months, purchased at 215,000 (all figures are examples), sold at 247,000, 15,000 settlement expenses, 20,000 improvements (carpeting, etc), how much tax would I have to pay on the sale? Turbotax says about 23,000, but I essentially lost 3,000 when you consider the profit minus settlement expenses minus improvements. Appreciate your thoughts on this. Obviously I’m not much on taxes.
April 1st, 2009 at 11:00 pm
contact you local tax authority. taxes are different throughout the country.
April 2nd, 2009 at 5:12 am
According to you Sales price 247.
Cost basis $215 + $20 + ??? (actual selling expenses–not everthing on the settlement sheet is deductable).
You appear to not have included your $20K of increase to basis.
By the way, use IRS pub 523 for a list of “improvements.” Contrary to several posts, carpeting IS an improvement.
April 4th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
Are you sure that carpeting counts as an “improvement”, as opposed to “maintenance”?
April 7th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Cost basis for home is the price plus closing costs and improvements.
250k Sold for 247K Loss of 3k no income tax due.
You must have entered the data in the wrong space.
April 8th, 2009 at 2:03 am
Most of the things like carpets, etc. are not tax deductible. While they may be improvements over what was there before, tax law considers them to be ordinary maintenance.
See a CPA who specializes in taxes. They can nit pick the improvements and deduct the ones allowed by IRS law.
Generally, Turbo Tax is follows the letter of IRS law and is more accurate than most tax preparers.
April 8th, 2009 at 11:11 pm
Some of your “improvements” might not actually count as improvements by IRS rules, so don’t increase the basis. Carpeting would most likely be one of those. Same for “settlement expenses”. – might not all be deductible from the gain.
But in any case, your TAX on the sale wouldn’t be $23K although your gain could be depending on the breakdown of the expenses. Your tax is at most 15% of the gain.
April 9th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
Also, read the question that you are inputting to carefully, I have gotten caught putting the full amount in when the program was only asking for the gain on the sale.
Also, are you or spouse military? There is an exception for that as well that negates the 2 year rule.
Hope this helps!!!
April 12th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
If you do not qualify for an exclusion, you will pay long-term capital gains tax on your gain. Your gain or loss:
Sales Price less commission: $232,000
Basis of your home: $235,000
Purchase price $215,000
Improvements: 20,000
Capital loss of $3,000.
Your settlement costs may not all be costs of the sale. The closing papers would have to be examined to see what is actually a commission.
So it looks like you have a capital loss. Good news, no tax is owed. Bad news, your loss is not deductible.
If you have no gain on the sale of your home, nothing needs to be put on your tax return. Keep your records for three years in case your return is questioned.
April 15th, 2009 at 9:31 am
If you only owned the owned it for 18 mos, unless you moved to take a new job, you are not eligible for any exemptions from profit. What your profit is depends on which of your settlement expense can be included and what of your improvements are actually added to your basis. (Not all improvements add to basis). Your tax pro will be able to tell you which ones qualify.