# We burned down an unwanted house for Tax Deduction!



## mars1952 (Feb 14, 2007)

Hi Folks: This is a video of the burning of a small farm house that we owned in Madison County in the western part of North Carolina. We donated the house to the local fire department to burn down for practice. The house was 75 years old at the time and in very bad condition. It has been built by poor farmers who did not have to worry about building codes or inspectors. The house looked pretty good from a distance but every part of the house needed to be rebuilt. The uphill end of the house sat directly on the dirt and was badly damaged by termites. The downhill end sat on dry stacked piles of stones. The roof had multiple layers of asphalt shingles covered by a layer of tin. Every board in the fascia, soffit and siding was rotten on the ends. To make a long story short the house needed just about everything replaced from top to bottom.

To qualify for a charitable tax deduction we had to have the house appraised and we had to get a letter from the fire department stating how much the house was worth to them as a training exercise. We were able to deduct the lesser of the two amounts as a charitable deduction on our income taxes. If you would like to have one of your buildings burned down I suggest that you talk to your accountant or tax attorney first.
Here is the link:

Farm House Burns to the Ground in Madison County NC

Good Luck, Mars


----------



## Hoodoo Valley (Nov 14, 2006)

Nice work on the video skills Mars! Are you going to put something back up in its place?


----------



## mars1952 (Feb 14, 2007)

tractor beam said:


> Nice work on the video skills Mars! Are you going to put something back up in its place?


Hi tractor beam: I would like to build a barn near where the old house was but it will be farther back off the road. The old house was only about 50 ft off the road. The well is still good and I had the power company leave the transformer on the pole. So it is ready for a new building.
Mars


----------



## freshtiva (Apr 27, 2010)

Looks like the FD needs to practice some more.


----------



## mars1952 (Feb 14, 2007)

freshtiva said:


> Looks like the FD needs to practice some more.


I wish that I had another building to donate. It was fun to watch.
Mars


----------



## MillNeckFarm (Feb 8, 2011)

Good info. I have a couple of old houses on property in VA that may fall to this fate.


----------



## Tarp_man (Nov 4, 2010)

Wow. Didn't take long for that building to go up. The house and garage didn't look that bad from the road. I'm sure it was totally not inhabitable. I've seen people living the in buildings and shelters in worse shape than that.


----------



## daniel2229 (Jun 5, 2011)

There are thousands, maybe tens of thousands of derelict barns and houses sitting in rural Ohio just like this one, and many are in far worse shape. I have often wondered why the owners don't donate the old buildings to the local fire department. Is there maybe some tax write off for buildings not being used? Is it a depreciation situation?

Eventually some straight line winds come along and knock the roof in... still no one tears them down. Some just sucomb to gravity.


----------

