Fire loss in Nov 2017 on a rental condo. I didn't have insurance. I paid out of my pockets to fix the fire loss: $6000 in 2017, and $8000 in early 2018.

ngthai0 — Tue, 04 Jun 2019 18:41:22 GMT

Should I enter Casualty Loss "Cost Basis" of $14000 in tax year 2017 (Fire happened in 2017)?
Or should I split? If I split, would 2018 tax year know that I'm entering an event that happened in 2017?

Casualty losses are deductible in the year you sustain th...

Coleen3 — Tue, 04 Jun 2019 18:41:24 GMT

Casualty losses are deductible in the year you sustain the loss, which is generally in the year the casualty occurred. The form doesn't ask how much you paid to repair, it asks for the Fair Market Value before and after the event. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f4684.pdf

Here is how casualty losses work: Individuals are required to claim their casualty and theft losses as an itemized deduction on Form 1040, Schedule A Itemized Deductions.

For property held by you for personal use, Subtracted any salvage value (zero for theft) and any insurance or other reimbursement from the loss amount.
Then, subtract $100 from each casualty or theft event that occurred during the year.
Then, take that amount and subtract 10% of your adjusted gross income from that total to calculate your allowable casualty and theft losses for the year.
That's the amount that goes on your Schedule A Itemized Deductions.

If your property is personal-use property or is not completely destroyed, the amount of your casualty loss is the lesser of:

The adjusted basis of your property, or

The decrease in fair market value of your property as a result of the casualty

More details can be found at this link http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc515.html

That said, the amount would have to be pretty large for you to be able benefit. Also, you must file Schedule A as I stated above. But, if you want to give it a shot in the Casualty and Theft section of the software, it wouldn't hurt.

How to enter it into TurboTax: While inside the software and working on your return, type casualty loss in the Search at the top of the screen (you may see a magnifying glass there). There will be a popup that says Jump to casualty loss. Select that to get to the general area.

topic Fire loss in Nov 2017 on a rental condo. I didn't have insurance. I paid out of my pockets to fix the fire loss: $6000 in 2017, and $8000 in early 2018. in Investors & landlords

Fire loss in Nov 2017 on a rental condo. I didn't have insurance. I paid out of my pockets to fix the fire loss: $6000 in 2017, and $8000 in early 2018.

Casualty losses are deductible in the year you sustain th...