Tree Farm

[carter-leonard]

I have 16 acres tree farm.  I last sold trees in 2005 and had to claim the profit as income.  I replanted and now the trees are 19 years old and were hit by hurricane Helene.  I have lost about 40 trees, 70 feet high x 12" to 18" diameter.  I am trying to claim a loss on Turbo-Tax by way of farm income/loss, I have no income for 2024, so Turbo-Tax is not allowing any loss.

How should I report my protentional loss for 2024, since I will not harvest these trees for another 10 years?

[PatriciaV]

Yes, you may report a Casualty Loss for all farm assets lost due to a Federally Declared Disaster, even if you had no income. You will need an appraisal for the trees that were lost, before and after the hurricane. 

If the casualty loss is greater than your income, you will have a Net Operating Loss. Generally, when there is a NOL at the end of the year, then you have to carryback the whole NOL to the two tax years before the NOL year ('carryback period'). Then, if there is any leftover NOL after the carryback period, you carryforward the balance for up to 20 years after the NOL year ('carryforward period'). You can't deduct any part of the NOL after the carryforward period.

TurboTax will help you with this situation. Search on "nol" to access that topic.