Question

I sold my home in 2018 which has always been in my name. For a few years my ex-husband claimed a small part as home office but we are divorced and I don't know his tax information for then. In fact he is in trouble for not filing taxes for a few yea

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
June 3, 2019
2 replies
0 views

No text available

TurboTax Premier Online

PopeyeTheSalior

Employee

May I know what your question is ?

O

Opus 17

Employee

You need to pay depreciation recapture on the amount of depreciation he took as part of the home office deduction.

There are several possibilities.

1. Get your attorney to pester his attorney. This sort of situation should have been covered in your divorce papers and final court order (mandatory sharing of tax information.)

2. Get your tax transcripts from the IRS and look up how much depreciation he claimed. It will be somewhere on schedule C or form 2106, depending on whether he was self-employed or a W-2 employer. Some transcripts may be available online or you may need to send in a request on a paper form. https://www.irs.gov/Individuals/Get-Transcript

3. Figure the maximum depreciation he could have claimed, based on the size of the home office, and use that figure. You should know what he claimed since he would have to be using a room or part of a room exclusively for work, so you should be able to determine the square footage as a percentage of the total SF of the home. Each year of depreciation would be 1/27.5 of the depreciation basis, multiplied by the SF percentage. The depreciation basis is the cost basis of the home, or the FMV, whichever was lower, in the year he first claimed the office.

For example, you bought the home for $250,000 in 2008, and he claimed the home office starting in 2010 when the home was only worth $200,000. The land was worth $40,000 (land does not depreciate) so the depreciation basis would be $160,000. He used the spare bedroom which represents 8% of the square footage of the home. The annual depreciation would have been (160,000 x 8% /27.5) or $465 per year that he claimed a home office.

This would constitute a good faith estimate of the depreciation he claimed. If the IRS disagrees, they will ask you for proof.

Also note, if he used the new safe harbor ($5 per square foot up to 300 square feet) then you do not have to recapture depreciation for those years.