Capital gain on sale of secondary residence . a month before the sale of secondary residence, I had the house repainted. can I deduct such expense from the capital gain?

[Coleen3 · Accepted solution]

Repairs such as painting are not deducted from capital gains per se.

The first thing to note is that expenses for making a house ready to sell can be listed as selling expenses when you are trying to determine if you have a profit and, if you do, how much.  But it is important to note the distinction between improvements on the one hand, and repairs and maintenance on the other..  Improvements are more or less permanent changes to the house. These get added to your basis.  New tile would generally fall into that category.  But painting and general repairs are more likely to fall under "repairs and maintenance."  If you get the house sold within a reasonable period of time (what is considered reasonable will depend on a variety of factors), although they end up in a different category than do improvements. You put them under costs of sale.  There is a special section in TurboTax where you get asked question about - and enter answers to those questions - on this topic