It depends
Personal vehicle -
No - If you have a capital loss on the sale of your personal vehicle (what you sold it for was less than what you originally bought it for (plus any upgrades you made to the vehicle), then you will not report this capital loss on your income tax return. The IRS does not allow you to recognize a capital loss on a personal use asset (your car)
Yes - If you have a capital gain on a personal use vehicle, you will report this as the sale of a capital asset.
To enter this
transaction in TurboTax, log into your tax return (for TurboTax Online sign-in, click Here and click on "Take me to my
return")and type "investment income (gains and losses)"
in the search bar then select "jump to investment income (gains and
losses)". TurboTax will guide you in entering this information (see step 6
below)
Alternatively, To
enter this transaction in TurboTax Online or Desktop, please follow these
steps:
- Once you are in your tax
return, click on the “Federal Taxes” tab ("Personal" tab in
TurboTax Home & Business)
- Next click on “Wages &
Income” ("Personal Income" in TurboTax Home & Business)
- Next click on “I’ll choose
what I work on”
- Scroll down the screen until
to come to the section “Investment Income”
- Choose “Stocks, Mutual Funds,
Bonds, Other” and select “start’ (or “update” is you have already worked
on this section)
- The first screen will ask if
you sold any investments during the current tax year (This includes any
sale of personal property held as an investment property so answer “yes”
to this question)
- Since you did not receive a
1099-B, answer “no” to the 1099-B question
- Choose the type of investment
you sold - Personal Items
- Some basic information:
- Description – type of
vehicle
- Net Proceeds – Total amount received for
the property less eligible selling expenses (if any)
- Date of Sale – Date you sold the vehicle
- Tell us how you acquired the
property
- Any Business or Rental Use -
If the vehicle was used for personal use only, you will not be able
to deduct the capital loss since no capital loss is allowed for a personal
use capital asset.
- Enter Cost Information:
- Date Acquired – Date you purchased the vehicle
- Original Cost – Cost of vehicle
plus any capital improvements
Click these links
for further information about reporting
the sale of a capital asset or Capital Gains and Losses
Business vehicle -
If the vehicle is actually owned by the
business, then you would need to report the sale under the business income and
expenses section related to business vehicle information.
