Selling furniture and her stuff of my dead grandmother.

[HunniBGood]

Hi,

My grandmother passed away in 2022. After paying for over 6 months for her storage unit I moved her stuff into my shipping container to go through for family and decide what to sell since the rest of the family didn't want anything and didn't want to be responsible for her storage unit.

I have held 3 garage sales over the year. I am keeping all the profit from the goods being sold. I have received all this stuff free and my grandparents aren't around to tell me original price. Original price to me was free. During these garage sales I also sold alot of my items because I am at a point in my life I am trying to let go of material objects. I have made over 6000 dollars. Some items I wrote down and smaller items like clothing I didn't itemize or kitchen stuff. How would I report this on my tax return. I still have half a shipping container to go. 

[MinhT1]

If you sell personal items at less that what you paid for (your cost basis), you have made a loss on personal items. This loss on personal items isn't deductible and isn't reported on your tax return.

For inherited items, your cost basis is the fair market value of the item at the time of death of its owner. So unless the item was an antique object or a collectible, its value has probably decreased or remained stable between the time you inherited it and the time you sold it. In this case, you have nothing to declare on your tax return.

If you know that certain items have appreciated, then you have made a capital gain which has to be reported and on which you will pay long-term capital gain tax.

Please read this TurboTax Help topic for more information.

[Opus 17]

For inherited items, your "cost" (actually, your adjusted cost basis) is the fair market value on the date the previous owner died, not the price they originally paid.  That means that you are almost certainly selling items at or below their FMV, which means that none of the proceeds are taxable income to you.

You should be keeping accurate records of the sales.  At a minimum, you need 

• a description of the item in sufficient detail to determine the FMV
• the date you acquired it (the date your grandmother died)
• the FMV on the date your grandmother died
• the selling price and selling date
• any selling expenses (shipping, listing fees, etc.)

Since you do not have a profit motive (even though you have made some cash, this is not a business and you don't have a profit when you are selling for at or below your cost basis) this is not a business and you don't report on schedule C.  You can't deduct losses or expenses, but the proceeds aren't taxable, as long as all the items are sold for less than or equal to their value on the day your grandmother died. 

If you don't get tax forms (like a 1099-K from Venmo or something) then you simply leave the activity off your tax return.  If you do get a 1099-K from a payment processor, you will have to report that as income but then you can report an offsetting adjustment to remove the income and show that it was all personal sales for less than your cost basis.  Either way, Keep your records for at least 3 years in case of audit.