IRS tax question

[sb1]

Originally Posted by Baseball Rarities

I am not an accountant, but this is not how it has been explained to me. AFAIK, the sale of baseball cards falls under "collectibles" which are all taxed as short term capital gains (ordinary income) - 28% -, no matter the holding period.

Please verify all of this with your CPA.

That is what I believe to be correct, further you cannot deduct any "expenses" incurred such as bank box, insurance, grading, etc.

[birdman42]

Originally Posted by sb1

That is what I believe to be correct, further you cannot deduct any "expenses" incurred such as bank box, insurance, grading, etc.

Scott,

You are correct that you can't deduct those expenses in the current year as "investment expenses" on line Schedule A line 23. What you can do is bake those expenses into the basis of the cards. Instead of taking the expenses against ordinary income at the time, you're taking them against capital gains at the time of disposition. Whether it makes any difference in the end depends on your relative income levels at the time of the two events.

It can get very messy trying to apportion group expenses such as an insurance policy among a whole box of cards, but it can be done. Just keep records.

Bill

[birdman42]

.