Calculating Capital Gains When No Ordinary Income

Calculating Capital Gains When No Ordinary Income

Investor · Midwest · Member since 2013 · 253 posts · 34 votes

Someone I know bought a property in the 70s to use as a second home. They did this and then turned it in to a rental, self-managed, after a number of years. They never took depreciation on the property for whatever reason. The person is now selling the property for about $100k. The property has been vacant for the past 2 years. The only income this person receives is about $800/month Social Security (this person is in their 90s).

The person doesn't remember how much they paid for the property (either the realtor or the person will have to go to the assessor's office to see if there is some document on file stating how much was paid). Let's just go off paying $10k to make numbers easy. So, that's a $90k gain. Will that be added to the social security amount to calculate Capital Gains or is it dependent only on the ordinary income, is social security considered part of ordinary income to determine capital gains?

I'm trying to ballpark what might be owed for 2019 taxes for this person. Does it matter that the person never took depreciation, or much of any tax breaks for the property? The person usually never really owed any tax due to such low income in general.

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  • Real Estate Broker · Naples, FL · Member since 2013 · 9k+ posts · 6k+ votes
    6y

    Depreciation is required by the IRS. Sounds like they have an accounting problem. They might need a tax professional.

  • Investor · Midwest · Member since 2013 · 253 posts · 34 votes
    6y
    Originally posted by @John Thedford:

    Depreciation is required by the IRS. Sounds like they have an accounting problem. They might need a tax professional.

     Yes, last year I had them get a CPA because they were dealing with HR Block and the person said since they charge per form not to file all the extra forms they could. It's annoying, but we're past that now.

    I just want to know do the capital gains, in this case maybe $90k get added to the social security amount to determine their capital gains rate or is it determined based on the amount of social security the person gets per year, or is the person considered to have $0 ordinary income to determine the capital gains rate for the $90k gain.

  • Bob NortonPro Member
    Accountant · Slidell, LA · Member since 2019 · 382 posts · 272 votes
    6y

    @Therese V. A portion of the capital gains will be taxed at the 0% rate, if her only income is social security.  However, her social security will most likely be taxed in the year she sells it.  If you are already working with a CPA, why don't you ask them for an estimate.  Their tax program should be able to do this relatively quickly.

  • Developer · Boulder, CO · Member since 2018 · 530 posts · 365 votes
    6y

    My understanding is that a recapture tax will be due upon sale of the property. The recapture tax rate is 25% against the allowable depreciation over the holding period WHETHER DEPRECIATION WAS TAKEN OR NOT. The depreciation amount is calculated by taking the original cost basis of the property less all non-depreciable property (which is typically land and other soft costs) divided by 27.5 years times the number of years the property was and held.

    For example: Assuming an acquisition cost of $130,000 - land value and other non-depreciable assets of $30,000 = depreciable a $100,000cost basis. Assuming the property was held for 10 years, the 25% recapture tax would be an amount equal to $100,000 / 27.5 = annual depreciation of $3,636 X 10 years = $36,636 X 25% = $9,901 recapture tax owed at exit.

    I am NOT an accountant, so please check this logic with someone that is licensed and qualified to properly determine these factors. In any event it appears that taking depreciation would have saved the property owner with a combined 30% federal and state tax rate $11,000 over the 10 year holding period (Total Depreciation X 30% = ~$11,000). Depreciation is a property owner's friend especially if segregated bonus deprecation is an appropriate method to apply to a property. Segregated Bonus depreciation currently allows 100% of all assets that have a life of 20 years or less to be entirely written off in Year 1 of ownership. 

    Plug that into a cashflow to see how much this can spruce up an IRR!

  • Investor · Pawleys Island, SC · Member since 2008 · 1k+ posts · 837 votes
    6y

    The recorded deed for the purchase of the property should state the purchase price.

  • Investor · Midwest · Member since 2013 · 253 posts · 34 votes
    6y

    UPDATE for those that wonder:

    Well, they went to an accountant to handle their taxes and turns out this person will owe $20k in taxes this year. So, lesson for the rest of us? Take your depreciation!!

    The property ended up selling for about $124k and it was held for almost 50 years without taking depreciation.

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