Personal Car Lease Equity

[_Q627]

Since the pandemic started and the price of used cars increased , I believe many people got car lease equity on their leased cars , a detailed example on how this works is in the below community question made by @robertburt1 :

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/tax-credits-deductions/discussion/re-capital-gains-tax-from-buying...

It is confusing where to fit this equity in , because leasing a car is different than financing/ owning an asset , so is it considered short term capital gain or long term or ordinary income ? And if it's capital gain what is the purchased date and selling date of the investment  knowing that the car was never owned by the lessee in the process ?Also what is the cost basis?

[LeonardS]

You do not own the car until you actually purchase it at the end of your lease, if you sell the car within the first year that would be short capital gain.  

• Your purchase date is when you purchased the car at the end of the lease.
• The selling date is when you sold the car
• Your cost basis is your down payment and lease payments less and sales tax paid.