Sale of Rental Property with multiple depreciation items

Jun 05, 2009 2 Replies

Purchased Rental house on 9/9/07 for total cost of 125,000.



allocated $14,650 to land



Bought various depreciable improvements in 2007,2008 (add each to basis)



Furnace $3598 Flooring (1) 962 (2007) Flooring (2) 935 (2008)



Amortizable Points paid with mortgage included in original basis $960



Total Depreciation and Amortization $7647 (all straight line) (I can provide breakdown if necessary)



Now selling house for $150,000, including costs of sale.


  1. Does each disposition item require an entry or is there a way to combine it all on 4797 into one entry? Assume all long term. (then, what if one item is short term?)


  1. If I have to make separate entries, how do I allocate the sales price to the individual items?



Thanks



Tyler


Yes, a separate entry for each disposition. It seems you have 4 (property, furnance, carpet 1, carpet 2). Maybe the two carpets can be combined into one.

In proportion seems logical. For example, net purchase is

125000+3598+962+9350495. House is 125000/ net•.789110693896317866584926625541% So net sale price of house is this percentage of 150,0003684. On the other hand, a furnace and carpet does not appreciate in value. But I don't think it makes a difference if all gain is long term. In the end the gain is 150000-130495+7647'152 no matter how you allocate.

If you don't allocate the selling price among the assets based on their FMV, you sorta forfeit the opportunity to avoid the unrecaptured section 1250 gain, which can be taxed at a higher rate than LTCG but isn't always. For an extreme example, let's say the entire gain can be ascribed to the land, i.e., none of the depreciable assets has any taxable gain from the sale, based on those assets' fair market value in the sale. In this case, if you report the sale as separate assets, you'll find that none of the gain attributable to the depreciation allowed or allowable of $7,647 is taxable as unrecaptured section 1250 gain, since the land didn't have any depreciation taken. All the gain will be Section 1231 gain.

Maybe this saves taxes, maybe not. Depends on too many other things to even start to list them here. And maybe it's not the case that all the gain is in the land; this is factual and I can't tell from here, and you might not be able to tell from there. If you lump all the assets into one, however, IRS won't complain because you've tried for the highest tax. NO, that's not right. The personal property, if sold at a gain, would give you Section 1245 recapture, which is fully taxable as ordinary income, since it's personal property, and not real estate. Make sure to sell the carpet at a loss...

Join the Discussion

Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.

Didn't find your answer?

Ask the community — no account required