I retired in 2016 and did not earn any income except for the sale of my company in 2017. Do I still have to pay Self-Employment Tax on the Sale of the Company?

[Zbucklyo · Accepted solution]

Ordinarily not.  If you sold for a capital gain, you may owe capital gains tax, but it depends on the amount of the gain, and other income you have.  Capital gains are taxed at 0%, 15% or 20%, depending on your income, and if the gain is sufficiently large, you would also owe the Net Investment Income Tax of 3.8% on part of the gain.

[Critter]

Usually when you sell a company you sell it off in parts ... the inventory, the assets, the goodwill, etc.  So if you were filing a Sch C in the past for this business and sold of the inventory then that would still be on the Sch C, the assets on the form 4797, etc.