25 October 2016
I was contacted by a couple of clients yesterday who had suffered losses at the hands of Hurricane Matthew. One was particularly impacted. Her home was flooded and she and her children are currently displaced. Her insurance is not covering all her expenses. She is thankful no one was hurt when they evacuated their flooded home, but she is dealing with the added expense of a hotel room (that accepts pets), the expense and stress of arranging repairs to her home, replacing her damaged furniture and appliances, and working full time through all this to stay financially afloat. She was exhausted and I could hear her frayed nerves in her voice. She wanted to know if there is something that might help her financially. Something, perhaps, in the tax code.
There is.
Casualty losses due to flooding (and other natural disasters) can be deducted from your taxable income, lowering your tax bill, and/or increasing your refund. This is accomplished when you file your return, which I explain in greater detail later.
I wrote two versions of this article. One for the folks like my client who are dealing with a lot of [poop] right now, and don’t have time to digest a long tax article. For them I present the “Bottom Line Up Front”. Two paragraphs on what to do right now so that you have the documentation available at tax time to claim your casualty loss deduction.
For those with more time and interest I wrote “The Long Version”. I hope you find one or the other (or both) helpful.
Bottom Line Up Front
If Matthew tore up your home and you’re displaced to a hotel or a friend’s house, here’s what you should do:
1. Keep all your paperwork. Every estimate, every insurance notice, every invoice, every receipt. Keep it all. Put it in a folder and bring it with you when we prepare your taxes in the spring. Don’t worry about whether you should save something or how to sort it. You have too many other urgent things going on right now, so just put it in a folder and bring it to me. I’ll go through it. I know what I’m looking for.
2. Take pictures. Most of us have a camera on our phone. Use it. Take pictures of all the damage and keep them. Download them to a folder on your computer. I’ll explain how to get them to me later when we prepare your taxes. They will become part of your tax record for 2016. We want to do this for two reasons: 1) my objective eyes might see something in them that you don’t, and 2) if the IRS wants proof you suffered casualty losses, pictures are a great tool to satisfy them.
Just do those two things for now, then focus on the other more urgent things. We’ll sort you out at tax time.
The Long Version
Hurricane Matthew came and went a few weekends ago, but many of us are still cleaning up and restoring our lives. Tade and I suffered little. Our daughter spent Saturday night in her old room because she lost power at her apartment. We woke up Sunday to find the electricity had been off briefly during the night (the flashing digital clocks always let us know) and the cable was out. There were a few branches down and the neighbor’s shutter was on our lawn, but that was about it. We missed a little football, but were otherwise no worse for the wear.
I have several friends and clients who suffered property damage. Something few of them knew before talking to me is that you can deduct casualty losses (for which you are not compensated by insurance) on your tax return. It doesn’t make up for all your losses, but it can help take some of the sting out of your tax bill, or increase your refund.
The biggest bummer about this tax deduction is that it must exceed 10% of your adjusted gross income before it starts to count. That’s a big hurdle to get over, but don’t let it dissuade you from claiming it. I have clients who suffered significant property damage in 2015. Deducting it from their taxes increased their 2015 tax refund by about $14,000. Not everyone can expect such dramatic results, but I mention it to highlight this is not a tax benefit you should ignore.
How it works
Casualty (and theft) losses are itemized deductions on Schedule A of the Form 1040 – meaning you have to itemize your tax deductions in order to claim it. If you take the standard deduction you can’t claim the casualty losses. It is legal to claim your deductions any way you want to, so (as always) we want to file your tax return in the manner that is LAMA (legal and most advantageous) to you.
You also need to claim this in the year that it happened. Matthew came through in 2016, so you need to claim any casualty losses from Matthew on your 2016 tax return. There are some provisions in the law to enable taxpayers to claim the damages on a prior year return, but Matthew happened late in 2016, so claiming casualty losses associated with Matthew are best handled on the 2016 tax return. There is no provision in the law to delay claiming the losses until you file your 2017 taxes.
There is a heavy paperwork lift to claiming this deduction correctly. The IRS wants to know:
a. How much you paid for your damaged property
b. Insurance reimbursements received for the damages
c. The Fair Market Value of the property before it was damaged
d. The Fair Market Value of the property after it was damaged (Salvage value)
I bet if you’re reading this because you had casualty losses that list just pushed your frustration level up a couple of notches. Again, don’t let it dissuade you. It’s not as hard as it looks. Take a couple of deep breaths and keep reading.
Of course you don’t remember how much you paid for each item in your home. Nobody does. That line is really there for any personal property you have that might have appreciated (increased) in value since it was purchased. For most people this would only be their house – and you probably remember what you paid for your house. (If you don’t you can easily find out). Nearly all other personal property (furniture, cars, clothes, etc.) depreciates (decreases) in value from the time it is purchased. For those items, a reasonable estimate of the purchase price will suffice.
If you were reimbursed by insurance there should be a statement from the insurance breaking down the reimbursable items. Typically, however, there are only two categories: the house and the contents. Nearly all of us have the contents of our houses listed as “unscheduled property” with our insurance companies. That means we haven’t listed each individual item with the insurance company, but instead we accept a flat rate (usually 10% of the house’s replacement value) as the insured value of all the contents of the house. It’s easier than updating your insurance policy every time you buy a chair, but the downside is that you can easily have losses exceeding the insured value of your home’s contents.
Knowing the Fair Market Value of your property is also something that few people can easily do. Unfortunately, this is where we are going to need to spend some time to get it right because this is the amount you can deduct from your taxes (after adjusting for salvage value, see below). Fair Market Value is NOT replacement cost. The Fair Market Value is the price you could have sold the property for the day before it was damaged.
The IRS uses the following example in their guide:
You bought a new chair 4 years ago for $300. In April, a fire destroyed the chair. You estimate that it would cost $500 to replace it. If you had sold the chair before the fire, you estimate that you could have received only $100 for it because it was 4 years old. The chair wasn't insured. Your loss is $100, the FMV of the chair before the fire.
Fair Market Value after the property was damaged is also known as “salvage value”. If your property was ruined after Matthew and you have it hauled off to the landfill, then its salvage value is $0. However, if it was damaged, but still usable, then it has some salvage value. You have to estimate this if you keep the item, or keep track of what you sold the item for if you sell it. If you donate the item to a charity, the salvage value is the same as the amount you claim as a deduction for the charitable donation.
We use all of the above numbers to figure out your actual losses. Then, strangely, we subtract $100 from it. It’s like the IRS has a $100 deductible. Then we subtract 10% of your adjusted gross income, and you can deduct the remainder from your taxes. If you had large casualty losses relative to your income for the year it can make a big difference to your tax bill.
Losses from a casualty can be devastating both emotionally and financially. Some things have more sentimental value than cash value, and might be irreplaceable. I hope this didn’t happen to you, but if it did, I hope you at least found a few answers in this article that help put your mind at ease.
I covered a lot of information in this post. There is a lot more to claiming casualty losses that I left uncovered. If you have questions, please contact me.
