I sold a car in 2016 for $1700 and I received $549 in "found" money do i have to delcare as income? I am 66 and willbe filling a 915? thanks

[MichaelL1 · Accepted solution]

Selling a personal asset as a car does not need to be reported on your return unless you made a profit on it.  A personal vehicle usually does not go up in value so this is rare to make money on it. A loss on a personal sale such as a car is not deductible. 

Found money is taxable income. 

Under Federal tax law, specifically IRS code section 61, it  states, “Gross income means all income from whatever source derived.”

So your unexpected cash is taxable income and must be reported on your income tax return in the year in which it was found. 

To report the Car (if profit made).

To enter your Car Sale (if sales price exceeds cost of car).

• Click on Federal Taxes
• Click on Wages and Income
• Click on I'll choose what I work on
• Scroll down to Investments
• Go to Stocks, Bonds and Other 
• Carfully go through this area to report the car sale.

To enter your Found Money

• Click on Federal Taxes
• Click on Wages and Income
• Click on I'll choose what I work on
• Scroll down to Less Common Income
• Go to Bottom to Misc.Income, click the start or update button
• Go to botton again to Other Reportable income and answer the questions and type in dollar and amount and Found