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sharfg
New Member

I sold a rental property at a loss. Over the years I added multiple assets to the property. How to correctly enter the sale of the property and related assets?

Should I prorate the sale price and allocate it to each asset? Will turbotax add correctly past depreciation if an asset is sold at a loss?

Thank you

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3 Replies
Carl
Level 15

I sold a rental property at a loss. Over the years I added multiple assets to the property. How to correctly enter the sale of the property and related assets?

Yes, you prorate. Or to more accurately explain it, you will "divide" the sales price across all assets. Understand that you will only divide the sales price of the structure. You will *not* change, alter or allocate the sales price of the land. You only divide/allocate the sales price of the "depreciable" assets. Since land is not depreciated, you don't change that price.

Please read the below to understand the importance of allocating your structure sales price correctly.

Reporting the Sale of Rental Property

If you qualify for the "lived in 2 of last 5 years" capital gains exclusion, then when prompted you WILL indicate that this sale DOES INCLUDE the sale of your main home. For AD MIL personnel who don't qualify because of PCS orders, select this option anyway, because you "MIGHT" qualify for at last a partial exclusion.

Start working through Rental & Royalty Income (SCH E) "AS IF" you did not sell the property. One of the screens near the start will ahve a selection on it for "I sold or otherwise disposed of this property in  2018". Select it. After you select the "I sold or otherwise disposed of this property in 2018" you continue working it through "as if" you still own it. When you come to the summary screen you will enter all of your rental income and expenses, even it it's zero. Then you MUST work through the "Sale of Assets/Depreciation" section. You must work through each individual asset one at a time to report its disposition (in your case, all your rental assets were sold).

Understand that if more than the property itself is listed in your assets list, then you need to allocate your sales price across all of your assets.  You will only allocate the structure sales price; you will NOT allocate the land sales price, since the land is not a depreciable asset.  Then if you sold this rental at a gain, you must show a gain on all assets, even if that gain is $1. Likewise if you sold at a loss then you must show a loss on all assets, even if that loss is $1

Basically when working through an asset you select the option for "I stopped using this asset in 2018" and go from there. Note that you MUST do this for EACH AND EVERY asset listed.

When you finish working through everything listed in the assets section, if you ever at any time you owned this rental you claimed vehicle expenses, then you must also work through the vehicle section and show the disposition of the vehicle. Most likely, your vehicle disposition will be "removed for personal use", as I seriously doubt you sold your vehicle as a part of this rental sale.


sharfg
New Member

I sold a rental property at a loss. Over the years I added multiple assets to the property. How to correctly enter the sale of the property and related assets?

Thank you very much Carl! Very helpful!
Carl
Level 15

I sold a rental property at a loss. Over the years I added multiple assets to the property. How to correctly enter the sale of the property and related assets?

When allocating keep in mind that all prior depreciation is recaptured, so it can be tricky to show all assets sold at a gain, or at a loss. Example:
asset price: $10,000
Depreciation taken: $2,500
Sales price: $8,000
With the above, you have a $500 gain, and not a $2,000 loss.

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