A camera and lens was destroyed because it feel in water during a photo shoot, how do I deduct that off my business

[DaveF1006 · Accepted solution]

It depends. When you put your camera and lens in service? did you treat them assets to be depreciated or did you expense them under the De Minimis Safe Harbor election? 

1. if you expensed them, then there is nothing to report in your return. When you purchase your new equipment, you can expense these again if there are under $2500 as outlined by the De Minimis Safe Harbor Election. Details are shown here.
2. Now if you declared your Camera and Lens as assets, you will need to report that it was destroyed so you can declare a loss. For this, you will need to view your assets in the expense section of your return. Assuming if you have reported these as assets, when you select assets in the expense section of your return, the first page will ask you if you wish to go to the asset summary, here you will say yes.
3. If your camera and lens are listed there, select edit.
4. Then follow the prompts where the screenshot that i have included below appears. This is where you will indicate you no longer have the equipment. After you enter the information asks, it will continue on determining how much depreciation is to be recaptured, assuming you used it in years past.
5. At the end, when the program asks for a sale price, put 0.  Now if you been reimbursed by insurance, you need to report the amount of the insurance proceeds as the sales price. 
6. The screen below is extremely important because it asks 1) Check where it says sold, retired, etc 2) date sold but it also means date destroyed 3) percentage of business use. These are all critical because it determines the amount of your business loss of your equipment.