Deductions & credits

For more information, see this IRS publication and in particular, review the section on the Safe Harbor for federally declared disasters and IRS revenue procedure 2018-08.


https://www.irs.gov/publications/p547#en_US_2020_publink1000225228

 

Briefly, if you are in a federally declared disaster area, you can use the price that you paid the contractor to restore your house as the estimate of your loss in value, as long as the home was restored to its previous condition and did not increase in value as a result of the repairs.


Regarding your personal belongings, revenue procedure 2018-08 provides a method for calculating the adjusted cost basis of each item, comparing that to the reimbursement, and determining whether you have a deductible loss or capital gain on the item.