My car was totaled during the hurricane. I paid $16000 with insurance paying off $10000. When I claim it as a deduction it says $0. Why?

[berkys-melo]

For the cost basis I entered the full amount of my car. From there I just entered the information my insurance company gave me about pay off and things like that. At the end when it asks about FMV Loss I put $0 because it was a total loss. I want it to be included in my deductions. What am I doing wrong?

[Hal_Al · Accepted solution]

I assume the  $16,000 you "paid" was to pay off the car loan. That $16,000 is not your casualty loss. You should not be entering anything about pay off.Your casualty loss is the Blue book value less the $10K insurance paid.  That's what you need to enter instead.

For FMV, you are asked the FMV before loss: that is where you enter the blue book value. Then it asks FMV after loss: enter 0 there.

[berkys-melo]

Well it asks me for the Cost Basis which is where I put the $16000 because thats how much the car was and how much the loan was for. FMV before loss is where I entered the $10000 because that is what it was valued at by Kelly Blue Book and then by the insurance company also. Is that wrong? Im new to all of this casualty stuff. Thanks for your help.

[berkys-melo]

It asks for insurance reimbursement. That is where I put the pay off amount. Was I not supposed to?

[Hal_Al]

Yes, you put the $10,000 the insurance co. paid. Since your entire $10,000 loss was totally reimbursed by insurance; you have 0 deductible casualty loss. So, TT is apparently doing it correctly

[berkys-melo]

Thank you . I fixed it. I got it to add into there and register the amount.