Publication 225 |
2000 Tax Year |
Other Involuntary Conversions
In addition to casualties and thefts, other events cause
involuntary conversions of property. Some of these are described in
the following paragraphs.
Gain or loss from an involuntary conversion of your property is
usually recognized for tax purposes. You report the gain or deduct the
loss on your tax return for the year you realize it. However,
depending on the type of property you receive, you may not have to
report your gain on the involuntary conversion. See Postponing
Gain, later.
Condemnation
Condemnation is the process by which private property is legally
taken for public use without the owner's consent. The property may be
taken by the federal government, a state government, a political
subdivision, or a private organization that has the power to legally
take property. The owner receives a condemnation award (money or
property) in exchange for the property taken. A condemnation is a
forced sale, the owner being the seller and the condemning authority
being the buyer.
For information on how to figure the gain or loss on condemned
property, see chapter 1 in Publication 544.
Also see Postponing
Gain, later, to find out if you can postpone reporting the gain.
Threat of condemnation.
Treat the sale of your property under threat of condemnation as a
condemnation, provided you have reasonable grounds to believe that
your property will be condemned.
Main home condemned.
If you have a gain because your main home is condemned, you
generally can exclude the gain from your income as if you had sold or
exchanged your home. For information on this exclusion, see
Publication 523,
Selling Your Home. If your gain is more
than you can exclude, but you buy replacement property, you may be
able to postpone the excess gain. See Postponing Gain,
later. (You cannot deduct a loss from the condemnation of your
main home.)
Irrigation Project
Property located within an irrigation project and sold or otherwise
disposed of to conform to the acreage limits of federal reclamation
laws is an involuntary conversion.
Livestock Losses
Diseased livestock.
If livestock die from disease, or are destroyed, sold, or exchanged
because of disease, even though the disease is not of epidemic
proportions, treat these occurrences as involuntary conversions. If
the livestock was raised or purchased for resale, follow the rules for
livestock discussed earlier under Farming Losses.
Otherwise, figure the gain or loss from these conversions using
the rules discussed under Determining Gain or Loss in
chapter 10.
If you replace the livestock, you may be able to postpone
reporting the gain. See Postponing Gain, later.
Reporting dispositions of diseased livestock.
If you choose to postpone gain on the disposition of diseased
livestock, you must attach a statement to your return explaining that
the livestock was disposed of because of disease. You must also
include other information on this statement. See How To Postpone
Gain, later, under Postponing Gain.
Weather-related sales of livestock.
If you sell or exchange livestock (other than poultry) held for
draft, breeding, or dairy purposes solely because of drought, flood,
or other weather-related conditions, treat the sale or exchange as an
involuntary conversion. Only livestock sold in excess of the number
you normally would sell under usual business practice, in the absence
of weather-related conditions, are considered involuntary conversions.
Figure the gain or loss using the rules discussed under
Determining Gain or Loss in chapter 10.
If you replace the
livestock, you may be able to postpone reporting the gain. See
Postponing Gain, later.
Example.
It is your usual business practice to sell five of your dairy
animals during the year. This year you sold 20 dairy animals because
of drought. The sale of 15 animals is treated as an involuntary
conversion.
If you do not replace the livestock, you may be able to report the
gain in the following year's income. This rule also applies to
poultry. See Sales Caused by Weather-Related Conditions in
chapter 4.
Reporting weather-related sales of livestock.
If you choose to postpone the gain on weather-related sales of
livestock, show all the following information on a statement attached
to your return for the tax year in which you first realize any of the
gain.
- Evidence of the weather-related conditions that forced the
sale or exchange of the livestock.
- The gain realized on the sale or exchange.
- The number and kind of livestock sold or exchanged.
- The number of livestock of each kind you would have sold or
exchanged under your usual business practice.
Show all the following information on the return for the year in
which you replace the livestock.
- The date you bought replacement livestock.
- The cost of the replacement livestock.
- The number and kind of the replacement livestock.
Tree Seedlings
If, because of an abnormal drought, the failure of planted tree
seedlings is greater than normally anticipated, you may have a
deductible loss. The loss equals the previously capitalized
reforestation costs you had to duplicate on replanting. You deduct the
loss on the return for the year the seedlings died. If you took the
investment credit for any of these costs, you may have to recapture
all or part of the credit. See Recapture of Investment Credit
in chapter 9.
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