Can I deduct home staging cost?

[Carl]

For what? Sale of rental property, 2nd home or primary residence? You can deduct it. But how and where you deduct it depends on what you staged as asked in my first sentence.

[je-funk]

sale of my primary resident.

[Carl]

That would be included in your sales expenses then. You'll report that under the Personal Income tab (or Wages & Income) in the Less Common Income section. Elect to start/update Sale of Home (Gain or Loss) to report the sale of your primary residence. When you get to the Sales Information screen where you enter the date sold and the selling price, you'll also have a box for entering your sales expenses. Your staging costs will be included in the sales expenses.

[JennOW]

I have home sale expenses that were incurred in 2019. The house didn’t close until January 2020. Do I deduct the expenses related to the home sale (staging) in 2019? Or do I hang onto them for my 2020 tax return even though they are dated December 2019?

[DoninGA]

If the closing was in 2020, then you report the home sale on the 2020 tax return to be filed in 2021.  Selling expenses are subtracted from the Sale price of the home.

[wulfgarp]

Follow up question from a new user - we moved recently from our primary residence into our new primary residence. We are listing the old primary residence for sale, but are expecting to put in about 3k in repairs and 3k in staging of some appliances and furniture. 

Do you have any thoughts about how to manage those costs for next tax season?

We also only lived in the house for about a year, but owned it for the past six. We sold a different home in early 2024 when I got left the service. Are we most likely subject to capital gains tax because of the recent sale and that we only lived there for a year? 

Appreciate any insight, just trying to keep in mind what next year will look like. 

[NCperson]

@wulfgarp the repair costs are not tax-deductible.  They do not extend the life of the home.  

the staging costs are sales expenses. 

you are always subject to the capital gains tax; the question is whether your qualify for an exclusion.  You can only use the exclusion once every two years.  Further, you did not live in the how for 2 of the past 5 years, so you wouldn't qualify from that aspect either.   Did you rent the home?  the required depreciation creates other complexities to determine the capital gains.