Putting down earnest money on a personal home doesn't give you a deduction, but business properties work differently. If you're buying business property and you forfeit your earnest deposit, you can write that off as a capital loss, provided the property is all business. Trying to buy a rental house that's also going to double as your vacation home doesn't justify claiming the deposit as a write-off. The same rules apply to writing off a capital loss on business real estate as they do for deducting lost earnest money on buying a business.
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