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November 19, 2021
Question

Tax Basis from prior Turbo Tax Returns

  • November 19, 2021
  • 2 replies
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Trying to locate the original basis of my Rental House that I have collected rents for years and that I believe I entered into TurboTax may years ago.  Where would I locate the purchase price and what depreciation has been taken over the years?  Is this located on a schedule or workpaper with TurboTax?  I am considering soon and will need this info to calculate capital gain.  Thank you for any assistance!

    2 replies

    November 20, 2021

    Your purchase price was not entered in taxes.  You will need to find that in your bookkeeping records. Depreciation will be in the rental property summary on TurboTax and carried to Schedule E.

    Carl11_2
    Employee
    November 20, 2021

    In the rental property section, in Assets/Depreciation you should see the property itself listed. Working through that you'll see the cost basis used for depreciation, as well as the total of all prior year's depreciation already taken as well as the depreciation for the current tax year. Take note that the cost basis used for depreciation may be close to your purchase price. But it's not the purchase price. It will actually be lower than the purchase price.  But you will need the depreciation data for reporting the sale. Remember, all depreciation taken is recaptured and taxed in the year you sell the property.

    If the property is/was still classified as a rental when you sell/sold it, then report the sale in the rental property section and everything will be fine.

    Take note that when the property was originally placed in service as a rental, you used the "lesser" of what you paid for it, or it's FMV when placed in service, for the depreciation value. So if you used the original amount paid for it, you'll be fine reporting the sale in the rental section. Otherwise, you have to report the sale in the "Sale of Business Property" section. That will require a fair amount of manual math on your part. But it's not that difficult really.