Unfortunately, in 2024 our Florida coastal home and property in Pinellas County were impacted with damage from Hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton that have been declared major disasters with DR codes at the FEMA.gov website. But, within the Casualty deduction section of Turbo Tax, I can't determine in our situation if I should select the first entry as qualifies for a federally declared disaster loss or the second entry for a non-qualified federally declared disaster. (I realize this affects which rules apply when calculating the loss.) So I went to IRS Pub 547 for definitions of casualty losses, and they define three:
1. Federal casualty losses. (an individual’s casualty or theft loss of personal-use property that is attributable to a federally declared disaster. The casualty loss must occur in a state receiving a federal disaster declaration.)
2. Disaster losses. (a loss that is attributable to a federally declared disaster and that occurs in an
area eligible for assistance pursuant to the Presidential declaration. The disaster loss must occur in a county eligible for public or individual assistance or both.)
3. Qualified disaster losses. (includes an individual's casualty and theft loss of personal-use property that is attributable to: (I put just the last bullet)
• A major disaster that was declared by the President during the period between January 1, 2020, and February 10, 2025. Also, this disaster must have an incident period that began on or after December 28,
2019, and on or before December 12, 2024, and must have ended no later than January 11, 2025.
I am flustered with trying to understand which definition applies and how to map it to the Turbo Tax selections. I want to say the selection of qualified versus non-qualified gets down to whether FEMA assistance was available.
