A few years ago, I purchased premium seat licenses for an NFL team directly from the team (i.e., not a resale). One of the benefits of the seat licenses is "One complimentary reserved VIP parking space in a preferred parking lot”; this benefit extends through the entire 50 year life of the license (note: they also sell less expensive seat licenses, which allow holders to purchase stadium parking). Parking is allocated at the start of each season and is in a designated area (e.g., I don't have "parking spot #1234," instead I have parking in Zone 1). This year, I've sold my parking for various games for over $1000 on Stubhub, and thus will be getting a 1099. My two questions are: (1) Can I treat these sales as LTCG under the premise that I acquired parking at the time I purchased the seat licenses? And (2) Can I ascribe a tax basis to the parking? Since the team also sells parking to certain lower tier seat license holders at, say, $100/game, can I use that price as tax basis? The argument is that my seat licenses were priced at a premium to those who did not get complimentary parking. I would argue part of the higher cost of the seat license was the value of the "complimentary parking" space. So I would use the price the stadium sells parking for each year to seat license holders as the tax basis for the parking. Many thanks for your feedback.
my opinion is that you're in effect subletting your space - all ordinary income. you haven't disposed of the license so no capital gain and you have incurred no actual cost. however, if you had to pay an annual fee for the space then a pro rata portion of that fee would be deductible.