How do I report a sale of a piece of land with a structure on it.

[seanald]

I purchased a house in 2001 on a large lot. I was the only owner. I split the lot into 2 taxable lots. I lived in the house until 2006 and then sold the house for a small gain. I kept the lot and it had a large shop on the lot but no utilities.(power, water or gas.) I didn't depreciate the building.  I used the shop for my rental properties and personal use. I sold the lot in 2016 however I was under contract with a developer but decided to cancel for a $5000 fee and sold the property to the homeowner that I had sold the house to originally. My questions are, Where can I report the sale? can I write off the $5000 cancellation fee?  Are there any other pitfalls to lookout for?

[RichardK · Accepted solution]

If you treat this as the sale of a personal asset, you report this on as an investment sale on Form 8949, click here for an article on how to enter in  Turbotax. You could add the $5,000 to perfect the title to the basis of the asset, click here for IRS publication 551 Basis of Assets.