I'm preparing to file my taxes and need some help figuring out the Casualty Loss deduction.
In late Dec 2015 my home was damaged due to a flooded basement from weather. I also had to move my home office to another area of the house and remove all the vinyl flooring, drywall, etc from the basement.
Pres Obama recently signed emergency declaration for the state of Missouri. Article here:
https://www.fema.gov/disaster/3374 .
I need help estimating my home casaulty loss AND my home office casualty loss. So, there are two things going on here.
First, on the Casualty Loss form 4684, what do I put for the following fields?
1.) Property A: Home
Property B: Home office
2.) Cost or other basis of each property
A: (what goes here?)
B: (what goes here?)
3.) (No insurance claim filed, skip this.)
4.) Gain from casualty or theft. If line 3 is more than line 2, enter the difference here and skip lines 5 through 9 for that column. See instructions if line 3 includes insurance or other reimbursement you did not claim, or you received payment for your loss in a later tax year
A: (what goes here?)
B: (what goes here?)
5.) Fair market value before casualty or theft....
A: (what goes here?)
B: (what goes here?)
6.) Fair market value after casualty or theft...
A: (what goes here?)
B: (what goes here?)
I paid $316.24 in expenses for tools (mops, buckets, vaccuum, etc) in 2015. Do I add this somewhere? The bulk of my cleanup and restoration expenses started in early January, so I won't be able to claim that for 2015, right?