I had a house fire in February of 2017. I rented the house so all of the belongings were mine but I rented the home. I didn't have renters insurance so how can I claim?

You can claim your loss as a casualty loss under Schedule A. You will need the FMV of your belongings before and after the fire. After the fire, it is probably $0. You can use various websites to determine the FMV of used belongings. Keep your FMV findings for your records.

In TurboTax, jump to the entry area for casualty loss:

1. Enter casualty loss in the TurboTax search box and press the Enter key.
2. Click on Jump to
3. On the Stolen or Damaged Items screen, click Yes.
4. Answer the interview questions describing your event.
5. When finished at the Property Summary screen,
   Enter any additional property losses by clicking the Add a Property button

You must be able to itemize on Schedule A to take this deduction:

What is Schedule A?

The IRS lets you take either the standard deduction or the itemized deduction. If you itemize (about 1/3 of all taxpayers do), we'll automatically fill out Schedule A, Itemized Deductions and switch you over to the 1040 long form.

Schedule A lets you report certain deductible expenses like:

• Medical and dental costs above and beyond 10% of your AGI
• State, local, real estate, and personal property taxes
• Home mortgage interest and PMI
• Charitable donations and gifts
• Casualty or theft losses
• Unreimbursed employee expenses above and beyond 2% of your AGI