topic Domain sale after 24 years in Business & farm

Domain sale after 24 years

Steve7913 — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 05:32:23 GMT

Hello,

I purchased a domain name in November 1999 as an investment. I did not intend to set up the site, but I thought I might one day. Turns out that never happened. I sold the domain last year. As the domain was never set up with a website or business, how do I declare that income? Is it a long-term capital gain? Is it normal income? I've researched a LOT, and I see many responses on Google that say "long-term capital gain." I'm just not sure if that's correct or not. Help! 🙂

Thanks.

Steven

Re: Domain sale after 24 years

Mike9241 — Sat, 23 Mar 2024 05:10:10 GMT

I would agree with capital gain treatment since the name was never used for business purpose and in the long run even if it did sell the a business domain name for more than it cost you would also be capital gain

this is entered in the investment section of Turbotax. (Stocks, Bonds, Other) the lower online versions do not cover this

Re: Domain sale after 24 years

Steve7913 — Sat, 23 Mar 2024 16:42:58 GMT

Thank you, Mike9241, for confirming the capital gain treatment. In my additional research after posting, everything continued to point in that direction. I feel better. Your comment about the lower version not covering this was also insightful. I'm using TurboTax Deluxe, not Premier. I tried going the forms way, and it would let me open a Sched D, but it never gave me an 8949, which I knew I needed. So, after your comment, I went through the investment interview process, and we got to the sales of investments. I selected it, and it indeed offered an upgrade to Premier. I decided to see how far I could get, and I got to the point where it asked me to enter a 1099-B, which the Broker in the sale didn't, and doesn't, provide (GoDaddy). However, I could enter the information it needed, and it generated the 8949 appropriately.

I believe that I'm all set, and it saved me close to $600 in taxes. (Woohoo!).

Thanks again for all your help and direction. It is very much appreciated.

Steven