If i dispose of rental property in 2016. Will I be able to claim it as a loss when it is sold in 2017?

[tax-novice1]

The property was rented for one month and has been off the rental market but for sale for 11 months in 2016.  If I sell the property at a loss in 2017 will I still be able to claim it as a loss and claim unallowable prior year losses?

[MargaretL]

Yes, your previously unallowed losses are deductible in the year you sell the rental property.

[RyanSF]

and how to do this in the software?  where to put the information?

and if we are using turbo tax year after year, where the file already knows the unallowed loss from year to year, why isn't it automatically put in by the software when you fill out the form for your sold property?  it knows the deprecation from year to year, why not this too?

am i missing something?

[Carl]

If you sold the property in 2017, then there's no way possible you "disposed" of it in 2016. Selling the property is but one possible way of disposing of it.

Did you convert the property back to personal use in 2016 maybe? Additionally, for the entire time you owned the property, was it classified as a rental for less than one year and did that classification***NOT*** cross tax years? (Both must be true to answer that last question with a yes.)