How much Capital Gains Tax Will I need to pay?
Thursday, July 29th, 2010 at
1:44 am
I purchased a secondary home for ,000 7 years ago and recently sold it for 5,000. Before selling it I would declare the rent from the house on my income tax returns, which total ,000.
How much capital gains tax will I have to pay and will this affect my income tax?
Filed under: Retirement Planning
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I assume this was a rental property for seven years. You report the rental income and expenses each year you own the property. You also depreciate the property each year. If you have not done this, amend your returns for each year you owned the property. You may or may not owe additional tax for the prior years.
In 2008, report only the income and expenses for 2008.
After figuring the depreciation, your basis in the property is about $65,000. Your gain is about $150,000. The gain is divided into approximately $20,000 of recaptured depreciation and $130,000 of capital gain.
You will pay a maximum tax of 25% on the recaptured depreciation, or $5,000. You will pay a maximum of 15% on the capital gain, or $19,500.
The rent collected does not figure into your gain. But if you took depreciation of the house on your tax returns that would increase your gain. Capital gains for Federal is 28% then there is your state and the IRS will hit you with the alternative minimum tax. A rough guess figure on 35k going for taxes. Your tax accountant can give you a better estimate.
If you have not been declaring the rent collected for the entire seven years, you could end up paying a penalty for undeclared income. Rent is a yearly income and needs to be declared in the year it was paid (minus any costs associated with owning the rental property).
As for the capital gains, you need a good accountant to minimize the capital gains. You will get to declare depreciation on the house as an expense., the expense of selling the property, and add certain expenses to your cost basis…all of which lowers your tax liability.
Depending on the capital gains left over, you will probably end up paying some extra income tax for the year.
You will pay part capital gains and part ordinary income (but not over 25% tax) on the sale. You have to recapture the depreciation (whether you took it or not) and then the gain above that will be taxed at no more than 15%.
You should consult your tax preparer who can give you a firm number. Not knowing whether this was part personal/part rental, it is impossible to know the answer.