1899046
Me and my siblings sold two foreign real estates (houses) during 2020, which we owned jointly as personal property, with a capital gain on one of them and loss on the other.
How can I report my share of the capital gain and loss in my 2020 tax return so that I pay taxes on the difference?
Many thanks
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If these are personal residences that you all shared, you cannot a declare a capital loss on sales of personal residences no matter where they are located thus you cannot use a capital loss in one residence to offset the gains in another.
Assuming the three of you had equal ownership, you would report one third of the sale. For instance, if one of the properties had a cost basis of $150,000 and it was sold for $300,000, then you would report a sale of $100,000 with a cost basis of $50,000.
You will report that in the same section in which you report stock and other investment sales. To enter:
David,
Thank you for your reply on my post; appreciate.
My question is whether I can report both of these personal property sales, one with a gain and the other at a loss, so that the total taxable amount is reduced by the loss on the second personal property.
Regards,
If these are personal residences that you all shared, you cannot a declare a capital loss on sales of personal residences no matter where they are located thus you cannot use a capital loss in one residence to offset the gains in another.
There are several ways to report the sale, and which is best for the owners depends on the initial setup.
At the time of purchase, if you set this up as a partnership with you and the two siblings as members of the partnership, that means a 1065 partnership return was filed each and every year, and each owner was issued a K-1 each year for their share of rental income/expenses. Each owner would then have reported that K-1 on their personal 1040 tax return. If this scenario, nothing changes. The partnership reports the sale and all gains/losses are split across all K-1's which are issued to each owner.
If each owner reported their share (1/3 each I assume) on SCH E directly each year, on their personal tax returns, then each owner will report the sale of their share the same exactly way. Each owner will report 1/3 of all income and expenses, including all costs, losses and gains received from the sale. Just report each sale one at a time. Take note the below is "generic" and is "guidance"; not a step-by-step instruction. It does not take into account screens you may be presented dealing with any foreign taxes you may have paid on the sale. But the program can deal with it just fine.
Reporting the Sale of Rental Property
If you qualify for the "lived in 2 of last 5 years" capital gains exclusion, then when prompted you WILL indicate that this sale DOES INCLUDE the sale of your main home. For AD MIL personnel who don't qualify because of PCS orders, select this option anyway, because you "MIGHT" qualify for at last a partial exclusion.
Start working through Rental & Royalty Income (SCH E) "AS IF" you did not sell the property. One of the screens near the start will have a selection on it for "I sold or otherwise disposed of this property in 2019". Select it. After you select the "I sold or otherwise disposed of this property in 2019" you continue working it through "as if" you still own it. When you come to the summary screen you will enter all of your rental income and expenses, even it it's zero. Then you MUST work through the "Sale of Assets/Depreciation" section. You must work through each individual asset one at a time to report its disposition (in your case, all your rental assets were sold).
Understand that if more than the property itself is listed in your assets list, then you need to allocate your sales price across all of your assets. You will only allocate the structure sales price; you will NOT allocate the land sales price, since the land is not a depreciable asset. Then if you sold this rental at a gain, you must show a gain on all assets, even if that gain is $1. Likewise, if you sold at a loss then you must show a loss on all assets, even if that loss is $1
Basically, when working through an asset you select the option for "I stopped using this asset in 2019" and go from there. Note that you MUST do this for EACH AND EVERY asset listed.
When you finish working through everything listed in the assets section, if you ever at any time you owned this rental you claimed vehicle expenses, then you must also work through the vehicle section and show the disposition of the vehicle. Most likely, your vehicle disposition will be "removed for personal use", as I seriously doubt you sold your vehicle as a part of this rental sale.
Many thanks Dave. I have found the same statement in my previous search also , i.e. "capital losses cannot be reported on sale of personal residences", but wanted to check again with the experts to see if there was a way out. Obviously, there is none; I have to pay the full capital gains tax on the other other residence.
Regards
Many thanks Carl; appreciate your response. At time of purchase, we have not set them as partnership. Also, they were personal residences, not rental properties, and so I have not reported any income / expense on them in Sch. E in the past either. It seems I cannot offset the gain in one with the losses in the other.
Regards
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