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dgabriel
New Member

I put $50,000 down when I purchased a rental property how do I deduct that from the gains that reflect when sold

I already paid taxes on this money it was in my savings
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3 Replies
ColeenD3
Expert Alumni

I put $50,000 down when I purchased a rental property how do I deduct that from the gains that reflect when sold

You don't deduct a down payment. You compare the sales price with the entire purchase price and the difference is capital gain or loss. In addition, any depreciation you took is now recaptured and taxed as ordinary income.

Carl
Level 15

I put $50,000 down when I purchased a rental property how do I deduct that from the gains that reflect when sold

What you pay for real estate as shown on the sales/purchase contract you signed at the time of purchase is not deductible on any tax return. It never has been. If the last tenant to vacate the property prior to the sale was a renter, then report the sale in the SCH E section of the program. That way, the program takes care of practically all the math *for* *you*.

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.

jtax
Level 10

I put $50,000 down when I purchased a rental property how do I deduct that from the gains that reflect when sold

No. Strangely downpayments and loans are irrelevant to the gain calculation.

 

If you could deduct the downpayment from your gain consider what would happen if you sold it the next day for the same price you paid. There should be no gain right?  You got what you paid. Sure you would need to use some of the proceeds to pay off the mortgage. If you got to deduct the downpayment you would have a $50k loss to offset other income. That doesn't make sense. 

 

Your gain is about the purchase price and the sale price. Not whether you pay the seller with cash or borrowed money.

 

Here's another example. I buy a house for $250k. I put down $50k and borrow $200k.

 

Over the years I pay off $100k of the mortgage principal (more with interest of course) and then sell for $500k. I add a new deck for $10k at some point (maybe I can increase the rent after that.) Also over the year's I have taken $30k in depreciation. What is my gain?

 

Gain = net proceeds of sale minus adjusted basis 

Adjusted basis = original cost + capital improvements (additions, etc.) - depreciation allowed or allowable

 

So in my example your adjusted basis is $250k + 10k (new deck) - $30k (depreciation) = $230k

My gain is $500k - $230k = $280k.

 

You can see the downpayment and mortgage payoff doesn't matter TO TAXES. However it matters to what you put in your pocket.

 

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