Deductions for business use of home from many years ago

[Zprof]

I am planning to retire in the next 2-3 years. At that point, I will sell my house and downsize. Since I have lived in my home since 1993, I have made a lot of improvements and kept all the documentation I need to justify the improvements. But instead of patting myself on the back, I feel like a total idiot because I have not kept the original closing documents. Also, I claimed deductions for business use of my house (1993-2010) -- and I have not kept my income tax returns for those years. (I was not using TurboTax at the time.)

From my county property tax info online, I have found the original price I paid for the house. Now I wonder:

1. Is this information the only one I would need from the closing documents if I had them, or would I need more info?

2. If I do, how do I get a copy of the closing documents? I don't remember where I banked when I got the loan, etc.

3. How about the deductions I claimed for the business use of my home office? How can I justify them? Would the IRS provide me with this information?

Maybe I should just keep working until I die and let my heirs figure it all out! Thank you for any help and reassurance you can provide.

[tagteam]

It will probably not be of much utility (depending) but do you have your title insurance policy?

You will most likely be able to reconstruct the deductions you took (or would have been able to take) with respect to your home office. Regardless, the IRS is not going to have records going that far back.

If you don't know which lender you used, nor the closing agent, there's little hope of getting a closing statement from 1993.

[Hal_Al]

Q. I have found the original price I paid for the house.  Is this information the only one I would need from the closing documents? 

A. Yes

Q. . How about the deductions I claimed for the business use of my home office? 

A. You do not need any info for expensed  business deductions (utilities, insurance, property tax)  taken in the past.  You do need to enter any depreciation, on the home, previously claimed as a business deduction, when you sell the home.  This is known as depreciation recapture and is not eligible for the home sale exclusion.  Depreciation would have been shown on past tax returns.  You can probably reconstruct a reasonable estimate of how much that was.  Example: you used 10% of the home for business and the house (exclusive of land) was bought for $100,000.  You woulda claimed about $364/year ($10,000 / 27.5 yrs) depreciation. 

[Zprof]

Thank you!

I am going through the paperwork in a large filing cabinet that I do not intend to take with me when I downsize. Last night, I found some papers (not filed in my "mortgage" folder) related to the original loan we took in 1993. I will contact the lender and keep my fingers crossed

[Zprof]

Wonderful! Then I don't even need to call the original lender.

Thank you for the tip about calculating depreciation for the business use of the house. I'll come up with some reasonable estimate.