Question

Sale of developed land

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
January 22, 2021
1 reply
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I purchased a building lot 8 years ago for $90K. this year I built a spec house on the property (fair market value for the lot is $180K). I spent $500K on the spec house and sold it for $800K. Since I owned the lot for 8 years can I take the $210K total gain as a capital gain? If not can I somehow take the $90K appreciation on the lot as a capital gain? I obviously didn't hold the spec house for a year but I could treat it as an improvement to add to the basis of the lot.

M

Mike9241

even if you added it as an improvement to the lot the acquisition date would be date of completion.

the way I see it you sold land for $x which is LTCG and the House for $u which is short-term capital gain. you may want to get an appraisal of the respective values. it seems to me most of the appreciation would go to the plan and little if any to the house.

Hal_Al

Employee

I agree with Mike9241, you have the sale of two assets, the land and the building. The land sale is long term and the sale of the building short term..

The cost of an appraisal may be worth while, but the valuation on the most recent property tax bill will usually suffice.