Thanks to all you helpful people. This is terribly frustrating. I think I am almost done with an estate return. There's only a 5K capital gain on the sale of the deceased's house, so no taxes are due. But I want to ensure I'm correctly passing any capital losses on to the heirs. The home needed to be empty for a long time before it could be sold, because of a hoarder situation. During this time it was necessary to pay the homeowner's insurance, dumpsters, water and gas bills, garbage service, internet service (to support the alarm system since house was not occupied) as well as some lawn care.
None of these are directly related to selling costs. Can these expenses be added to the basis, which would create a capital loss instead of a gain? Does this go on form 8949, part II, column G, code E? There are several thousand dollars of these expenses. Without utilities, the house condition would degrade, and without the burglar alarm, insurance, and internet there could have been substantial losses. Am I correct in identifying these as items that would add to the basis for the purpose of calculating capital gains, and that this is the correct form for them? Or am I totally off base?
