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ccpr21
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Tax Year 2016: I Casualty flood event from 2016 can I calculate in my cost basis furniture, electronics, and clothes?And do I need to include the amt. I received from FEMA as insurance?

 
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Tax Year 2016: I Casualty flood event from 2016 can I calculate in my cost basis furniture, electronics, and clothes?And do I need to include the amt. I received from FEMA as insurance?

Yes, since it was all one incident you can total the amounts.  Also, yes, anything you received from FEMA must be reported as reimbursements or insurance.

Here is how the Casualty Loss deduction works: Individuals are required to claim their casualty and theft losses as an itemized deduction on Form 1040, Schedule A Itemized Deductions. 

  1. For property held by you for personal use, Subtracted any salvage value (zero for theft) and any insurance or other reimbursement from the loss amount.
  2. Then, subtract $100 from each casualty or theft event that occurred during the year. 
  3. Then, take that amount and subtract 10% of your adjusted gross income from that total to calculate your allowable casualty and theft losses for the year.
  4. That's the amount that goes on your Schedule A Itemized Deductions.

If your property is personal-use property or is not completely destroyed, the amount of your casualty loss is the lesser of:

  • The adjusted basis of your property, or
  • The decrease in fair market value of your property as a result of the casualty

More details can be found at this link  http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc515.html

That said, the amount would have to be pretty large for you to be able benefit.  Also, you must file Schedule A as I stated above.  But, if you want to give it a shot in the Casualty and Theft section of the software, it wouldn't hurt.

How to enter it into TurboTax: While inside the software and working on your return, type casualty loss in the Search at the top of the screen (you may see a magnifying glass there).  There will be a popup that says Jump to casualty loss.  Select that to get to the general area. 


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