What this line means
The total of all gains from personal-use property casualties or thefts during the year. A casualty gain occurs when insurance or other reimbursement exceeds the adjusted basis of the property. For example, if your car had a $10,000 basis and insurance paid $15,000, you have a $5,000 casualty gain. This gain is taxable unless you use the proceeds to buy replacement property within the required period.
Does this apply to you?
- You received insurance proceeds or reimbursements that exceeded what you originally paid for the property
- You had property with a low basis (fully depreciated or purchased cheaply) that was destroyed and fully reimbursed
- You are determining whether your gains offset your losses for the year
Easy to overlook
You can defer the gain by purchasing replacement property If you replace the destroyed property within two years (four years for a federally declared disaster), you can postpone the gain. The replacement property must be similar or related in use. If you do not replace the property, the gain is taxable in the year received. Many filers do not realize this deferral option exists. 1 IRS Publication 547 — Casualties, Disasters, and Thefts
Gains and losses are netted before the 10% AGI rule applies If you have both casualty gains and casualty losses in the same year, they offset each other. The 10% of AGI reduction on line 18 applies only if losses exceed gains. Filers with gains sometimes fail to net them against losses, paying tax on gains and also losing the deduction on the loss side to the AGI threshold. 2 IRS Form 4684 instructions — Lines 14-16
Watch out for this
Ignoring a casualty gain because you used the insurance money to buy a replacement. Using the money for replacement property does not eliminate the gain automatically — you must elect to defer it and meet the replacement timeline. Without the election, the gain is taxable even if you bought replacement property. Report the gain on line 14 and handle the deferral separately.
Footnotes
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IRS Publication 547, Casualties, Disasters, and Thefts, Postponement of Gain. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p547.pdf ↩
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IRS Form 4684 Instructions, Lines 14-16. https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i4684 ↩