Hello, I drove for Uber and Lyft last year and was paid $11,504 for an insurance claim loss for the vehicle and bought a $10,700 car. Why does it show $22K in my sales?

[adamsp1984]

Sale of business property is listed at $22,000. I try to edit this information but it does not allow me. I only gained about $800 net on the insurance claim. Very confusing using these itemized deductions.

[MichaelDC · Accepted solution]

There are two ways to handle this. 1) You can figure a taxable gain or loss on the vehicle or 2) you can delete it from your business expenses.

1) Tell TurboTax that you disposed of the vehicle, even if you just stopped using it or it was totaled.  You would then answer the prompt for "sales price as being $0".  This is what TurboTax instructs you to do. (See the attached screenshot below. Click to enlarge.)

·         Continue through the prompts for the vehicle.

·         TurboTax asks for the "sales price (which was $0)".

·         TurboTax asks for what you paid for the vehicle. Calculate the basis of the vehicle. 

·         You may end up with a gain (or loss) on the disposition of the vehicle. A gain (or loss) is calculated even though you chose to stop using the vehicle. 

·         See IRS Publication 463 Transportation for additional information on the Disposition of a Vehicle.

2)  You can just delete the vehicle:

·         If you were using the vehicle as part of your Business, then click on the Business tab in your return, hit Continue, and then select I'll Choose What I Work On.

·         Look in the first section, Business Income and Expenses, and choose to Update that section.

·         Scroll down to Business Expenses and click on the Business Vehicle Expense item of that section.

·         On the Vehicle Expenses Summary page, you can Delete your vehicle.  That will also delete the worksheet associated with that vehicle.