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Frequently Asked Tax Questions

Capital Gains, Losses, Sale of Home - Losses (Homes, Stocks, Other Property)

  1. Is the loss on the sale of your home deductible?
  2. I own stock which became worthless last year. Is this a bad debt? How do I report my loss?
Rev. date: 08/04/2012

Is the loss on the sale of your home deductible?

previous topic occurrence Capital Gains and Losses next topic occurrence
previous topic occurrence Primary Residence next topic occurrence
previous topic occurrence Selling Your Home next topic occurrence
The loss on the sale of a personal residence used by the taxpayer at the time of the sale is a nondeductible personal loss.
Additional Information
Tax Topic 409, Capital Gains and Losses Publication 523, Selling Your Home
Rev. date: 09/25/2012

I own stock which became worthless last year. Is this a bad debt? How do I report my loss?

previous topic occurrence Bad Debt next topic occurrence
previous topic occurrence Capital Gains and Losses next topic occurrence
Stock
previous topic occurrence Worthless Securities next topic occurrence
If you own securities, including stocks, and they become totally worthless, you have a capital loss but not a deduction for bad debt. A stock or other security is treated as becoming totally worthless when it has no value and you must abandon it. To abandon a security, you must permanently surrender and relinquish all rights in the security and receive no consideration in exchange for it.
The worthless securities are:
Additional Information
Tax Topic 453, Bad Debt Deduction Publication 17 Your Federal Income Tax For Individuals Chapter 1 What Records Should I Keep Publication 550, Investment Income and Expenses (Including Capital Gains and Losses)
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