TT used to ask for cost basis at sale but now uses depreciation amount.
Not "quite" an accurate statement.
If you purchased the property and immediately made it a rental, then your depreciation basis is based on the cost basis - which is what you paid for it. So you report the sale in the rentals section and the program takes care of everything for you, including the depreciation recapture.
However, lets say you purchased the property in 2005 as an example, for $200,000. Then you placed it in service as a rental in 2009 when the housing market crashed. At that time the FMV when placed in service was lower than what you paid for it. Since you depreciate based on the *LESSER* of it's FMV when placed in service, or what you paid for it, that means you can **NOT** report the sale in the rentals section. You *HAVE* to report it in the Sale of Business Property section. In "that" section you will be asked for the cost basis. So you know what you paid for the property. All you need to do is look in the rental "Assets/Depreciation" section to get all the depreciation you've already taken. You'll be asked for that in the Sale of Business Property section.
The correct amount of deprecation taken requires *you* to do some math. You have to add togehter the amount of prior year's depreciation taken, and the current year deprecation on *ALL* assets listed to get the correct total amount of all depreciation taken on the property.
So I'm not understanding how you're having a hard time getting the original cost basis on the property You paid for it, and you have the HUD-1 closing statement which you received at the closing when you purchased the property. Additionally, what you paid for the property is public information and will be listed on your county's "real property ownership" web site.
