It's interesting that there seems to be no tax court case on the issue of cost of furniture storage, as distinguished from moving expenses. Surely it must be a common expense among those selling houses. I saw a number of houses last year that were staged for sale, as well as many that were not. In the houses that were pretty clearly staged, the furniture didn't look as though it had been in prior use for a period of time. In other words, the furniture belonging to the current owners had been temporarily replaced. I don't recall seeing in any of these cases a garage or other building on the property that was crammed with furniture; the owners' furniture had evidently been removed offsite.
Storage is not in itself advertising. Staging is. But storage, and the associated costs of storage, would be a prerequisite for this form of advertising. So might other costs supporting staging be in some cases. If a homeowner were offered the short-term loan of rooms of furniture at no charge and on the condition that the homeowner rent a truck to get the furniture back and forth, wouldn't the homeowner be entitled to use the truck rental charge as a staging expense?
