KrisD15
Expert Alumni

Deductions & credits

When you sell rental property, there are usually two types of income generated:

Depreciation Recapture

Capital Gains

 

All the assets need to be assigned "Adjusted Basis" 

Adjusted Basis is the original cost less depreciation. 

Land does not deprecate, so the original cost stays as the basis

 

You don't say when you purchased the property and for how much, but lets say 300,000.

Lets say the land was valued at 50,000.

Land does not depreciate, so the adjusted basis is still 50,000.

That leaves 250,000 for the building. 

Lets say you depreciated 75,000 that leaves an "Adjusted Basis" of 175,000 for the building. 

Did the roof cost 28,680? If yes, how much did it depreciate? Let's say 8,680 so the adjusted basis of the roof is 20,000.

 

If you had other assets added, (like a water hook-up) they would also have been added as assets and depreciated. 

Let's continue with only the ones you listed.

 

NOW you allocate the selling proceeds. You can do whatever you (and the IRS) think is fair, but it is usually easiest to allocate the remaining "Adjusted Basis" to the assets, so 20,000 to the roof. That takes it off the books and you don't have to deal with depreciation or capital gain FOR THAT ASSET. 

So 600,000 less 20,000 = 580,000.

41% of the sale going to land seems high, but say the land is worth 250,000.

Ok, what did YOU pay for the land? Whatever is profit on the land is Capital Gain. 

That leaves 330,000 to go towards the building

The adjusted basis of the building is now 175,000, and you sold for 330,000

That means the first 75,000 is depreciation recapture because you now "Pay Back" what was depreciated, because unlike many things that get old and loose value, real estate often increases in value. 

The remaining 80,000 is capital gain 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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