Understanding net section 1231 gain (loss)

What is net section 1231 gain or loss?

Per the IRS Pub 544:

Section 1231 gains and losses are the taxable gains and losses from section 1231 transactions, (discussed below). Their treatment as ordinary or capital depends on whether you have a net gain or a net loss from all your section 1231 transactions.

If you have a gain from a section 1231 transaction, first determine whether any of the gain is ordinary income under the depreciation recapture rules (explained later). Do not take that gain into account as section 1231 gain.

The following transactions result in gain or loss subject to section 1231 treatment:

• Sales or exchanges of real property or depreciable personal property. This property must be used in a trade or business and held longer than 1 year. Generally, property held for the production of rents or royalties is considered to be used in a trade or business. This property must also be either real property or of a kind that is subject to depreciation under section 167 of the Internal Revenue Code. See section 1231 for details. Depreciable personal property includes amortizable section 197 intangibles (described in chapter 2 under Other Dispositions ).
• Sales or exchanges of leaseholds. The leasehold must be used in a trade or business and held longer than 1 year.
• Sales or exchanges of cattle and horses. The cattle and horses must be held for draft, breeding, dairy, or sporting purposes and held for 2 years or longer.
• Sales or exchanges of other livestock. This livestock does not include poultry. It must be held for draft, breeding, dairy, or sporting purposes and held for 1 year or longer.
• Sales or exchanges of unharvested crops. The crop and land must be sold, exchanged, or involuntarily converted at the same time and to the same person and the land must be held longer than 1 year. You cannot keep any right or option to directly or indirectly reacquire the land (other than a right customarily incident to a mortgage or other security transaction). Growing crops sold with a lease on the land, though sold to the same person in the same transaction, are not included.
• Cutting of timber or disposal of timber, coal, or iron ore. The cutting or disposal must be treated as a sale, as described in chapter 2 under Timber and Coal and Iron Ore .
• Condemnations. The condemned property must have been held longer than 1 year. It must be business property or a capital asset held in connection with a trade or business or a transaction entered into for profit, such as investment property. It cannot be property held for personal use.
• Casualties and thefts. The casualty or theft must have affected business property, property held for the production of rents and royalties, or investment property (such as notes and bonds). You must have held the property longer than 1 year. However, if your casualty or theft losses are more than your casualty or theft gains, neither the gains nor the losses are taken into account in the section 1231 computation. For more information on casualties and thefts, see Pub. 547.

How does the program calculate section 1231 gains?

Section 1231 gains will be calculated automatically when disposing of property on the Depreciation screen. To designate a disposition as 1231 on the Disposition screen, you must make an entry in the Depreciation Allowed (-1 if none) field.

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