Sale of rental property

[Owengoal]

As I understand it, when I sell a rental property, the cost basis is determined by adding purchase price plus costs associated with the purchase plus improvements to the property.  assuming that is correct, where on the tax form do I enter the cost of improvements ?

[SantinoD · Accepted solution]

You are correct, you can include the cost of improvements to help increase the basis. I included some steps to follow below:

1. With your return open in TurboTax, search for rentals and then select the Jump to link in the search result.
2. Answer Yes to the question Did you have any income from rentals or royalties?
3. When you get to What are you here to report? select Rental property and fill out the description, address, and owner.
4. When you hit Tell us about your situation this year check the Sold box along with any other boxes that may apply.
5. Continue following the onscreen prompts to enter info about your rental property. Eventually, you'll get to the Review your rental property info screen. You can report the sale in the Expenses/Assets (Depreciation) section, along with any other pertinent info (like income and expenses)

When you get to the screen below, enter the Cost (use the "learn more" link if needed), cost of land and date purchased.

Go through all the questions until this asset is complete. Then to add the improvements, you will need to click "add an asset" for each improvement and go through the same questions.

Tip: Take your time and pay close attention. There's a lot of info and it's easy to miss if you're in a hurry.