Is there any tax benefit if you lose money when selling a home?
I paid 413K for the home and selling it for 389K
6 Responses
working_four_ds
05 Mar 2010
boogerboy
05 Mar 2010
I Greenspan is correct, every home owner in America will be finding out when they try to sell. Didn’t he say he sees a 10-25% decline in proverty values over the next few years.
sugaree
05 Mar 2010
right, take a capitol loss. when selling a house you always want to show a loss, even if you make money on it. you do this by charging off all the improvements you made that cost you out of pocket. that way you don’t have to pay a capitol gains tax on the profit. check out the publications put out by the irs for selling a home. i’ve sold 3 houses and walked away with money in my pocket, but always was able to show a loss compared to what i paid, and therefore never had to pay a capitol gains tax on the money i received. america, what a country!
Gwenhwyvar
05 Mar 2010
I don’t know about a "benefit" but there is such a thing as a "capital loss"
DearDebra
05 Mar 2010
Don’t sell it, then! Wait for a better offer.
Arbitrage
05 Mar 2010
You can take a capital loss, which would offset your capital gains, but if you can’t have capital gains, it’s not as much help.
I’m not familiar with the exact laws but I don’t think you can offset ordinary income with your probable long-term capital loss. If you sold it within either 12 or 18 months, then it’s a short-term loss and you can offset ordinary income with that loss. Someone correct me if I’m wrong.
I used investing gains, but I assume real estate is relatively similar.
Capital loss would only count if you held the house long enough. If you just bought the house, the loss would be an ordinary loss.
Other than that not much benefit