Q. I have found the original price I paid for the house. Is this information the only one I would need from the closing documents?
A. Yes
Q. . How about the deductions I claimed for the business use of my home office?
A. You do not need any info for expensed business deductions (utilities, insurance, property tax) taken in the past. You do need to enter any depreciation, on the home, previously claimed as a business deduction, when you sell the home. This is known as depreciation recapture and is not eligible for the home sale exclusion. Depreciation would have been shown on past tax returns. You can probably reconstruct a reasonable estimate of how much that was. Example: you used 10% of the home for business and the house (exclusive of land) was bought for $100,000. You woulda claimed about $364/year ($10,000 / 27.5 yrs) depreciation.
