You don’t enter it separately. The commission decreases the amount of your sale of the home.
To put it another way, the real estate commission when you sell your home isn't deductible and isn't entered on your tax return. Instead, it's added to your cost basis when you calculate your capital gain or loss.
@TomD8 - in the desktop version, it asked for the selling price and then it asks for the selling expenses separately . The closing costs would be the sales commission and any other costs (such as title insurance if the seller is paying it, legal fees if the seller is paying it, etc.)
While I agree netting them together gets to the same result, TT does ask for them separately.,
Further, the FAQ for 'selling expenses' in TT states:
Sales expenses are listed in the sellers column of your settlement statement and include:
- commissions
- appraisal fees
- broker's fees
- legal fees
- advertising fees
- home inspection reports
- title insurance
- transfer taxes or fees
- geological surveys
- loan charges (points) or other fees paid on the buyer's behalf
- any fees for a service that helped you sell your home without a broker (listing fees, promotional fliers, etc.)
NOTE:
Sales expenses do not include:
- mortgage payoffs
- home equity loan payoffs
- rent-back costs
- payoff to creditors
- property taxes
- home owner association fees
So I disagree with your response that the sales commission adds to the cost basis. While I agree adding it to the cost basis instead of the selling expenses won't cause the capital gains to be misstated, it is not the process that TT asks its customers to follow and I suspect that means the IRS wants taxpayers to mark the commission as a selling expense as well.
I have not been prompted to enter any information about the sale of our home, I did check that as a life event at the begining.
@renowest48 wrote:
I have not been prompted to enter any information about the sale of our home, I did check that as a life event at the begining.
If you sold your primary personal residence and you lived in and owned the home for at least two years in the five year period on the date of sale, you do not have to report the sale if your gains are less then the exclusion amounts of $250,000 if filing Single or $500,000 if filing Married Filing Jointly (and both lived in the home for two years).
If you had a gain greater then the exclusion amounts then you would have to report the sale. Also, if you received a Form 1099-S for the sale either with a gain or a loss, the sale has to be reported. You will need the online TurboTax Premier or Self-Employed edition to report the sale if you are using the online editions. Make sure that you indicate that you want the sale of the home reported on your tax return.
Or enter sale of home in the Search box located in the upper right of the program screen. Click on Jump to sale of home