Turbo Tax no longer asks for "Cost of the Land" when describing a rental property that was sold. How do I account for the value of the land (vs the asset)?

[cmwires]

The 2018 version of Turbo Tax (unlike the 2017 version) does not ask for the "Cost of the Land" when a rental property is sold.  Under "Review Information,"  it only asks for "Cost" and "Prior Depreciation."  It's unclear what "Cost" means--is it the Cost of the (Asset + Land)?  Or the Cost of the Asset?  If the latter, where do I enter the cost of the Land?

[cmwires]

Thx for your answer below.  HOWEVER, my Turbo Tax (Deluxe Version) does NOT look like your screen shot.  Your Sale_of_Rental_3.jpg shows "Land."  My screen does not ask for Land; hence my original question!    If I could upload a screen shot, I could prove this to you.  How do I show you what I see?

[DoninGA · Accepted solution]

When you added the rental property as an Asset you also entered the price of the land along with the price of the residential rental Asset.  When the Asset is sold the program specifically asks for both the Asset sales price and the Land sales price.

See screenshots

[cmwires]

My Turbo Tax does NOT look like your screen shot.  Your Sale_of_Rental_3.jpg shows Land.  My version does not!    If I could upload a screen shot, I could prove this to you.  How do I show you what I see?

[DoninGA]

When you first enter the residential rental property in program as a rental property, you go through several screens to describe the property you are adding as rental, the cost of the rental property, the date acquired and the date the property became available as a rental.  See screenshot

One of the following screens asks about the Land Value and the Value of the Improvements.  This includes the rental property as an Asset.  See screenshot

So when the Rental Asset is sold the program gives you the original entries made for both the cost of the property and the the land value, as shown in my screenshot Sale_of_Rental_3.jpg

[COMPEASY]

I have the same question.  Let me rephrase it - if you mistakenly did not input LAND cost when you first setup the asset, how can you go back and update the LAND cost?  We understand that it prompted you to input LAND when it was first setup, however, we need to go back and correct it now.  How do we do that?

[COMPEASY]

SOLVED.  Go to Asset Worksheet FORM for the property - you'll see a line item for Land  cost.  Input land cost on this form, and when you sell the property, land cost will now appear.

[Carl]

If you have multiple assets in the Sale of Assets/Depreciation section, the only asset guaranteed to have a land cost is the property asset itself. If it does not have a land cost, then that's due to one of two things (Usually).

1) When the asset was set up, it was not correctly classified as Residential Rental Real Estate or;

2) When the asset was set up you did not enter a land cost, or incorrectly entered a value of zero for the land.

Generally, other items in the assets/depreciation section (such as a new roof) will be classified as residential rental real estate if it's required to be depreciated over 27.5 years. Of course,you'll enter zero for the cost of the land. Therefore, you will not be asked for cost of land when reporting the sale of that asset.

If you have an asset that's classified as a land improvement, then you'll only have a "cost" box for that, since land improvements do add to the cost basis, yet are not depreciated.

It's unclear what "Cost" means--is it the Cost of the (Asset + Land)

Yes, the ***TOTAL*** cost you paid for that specific asset, which in the case of residential rental real estate would include the land.

where do I enter the cost of the Land?

When initially entering an asset, if you do not get the "cost of land" box on the same screen as the "cost" box, that's because the item was not classified by you as residential rental real estate.