First time poster here. Hoping some of you long time investors have experience with a land purchase question and how it relates to federal taxation. If you buy a large property (say 100 acres) for $100K, and sell a few small parcels from it totaling 20 acres for $60K overall, do you have to pay any taxes on the sale or would that still be considered non taxable since you haven’t realized a gain over the initial $100K purchase price (even though you still maintain possession of a majority of the land purchased)? Thanks in advance for responses.
Hire a very crafty accountant.
You need to calculate if there was a capital gain or loss on the sale of the 20 acres by considering the original purchase price, associated costs, and any improvements made. If there’s a gain, you’ll likely owe taxes on it. However, if the gain is less than the cost basis (the $100,000 purchase price), then you wouldn’t owe any taxes on the sale. It means you’ve essentially recovered the cost of the 20 acres without a profit.