<p>Tried to do a little searching and I can't quite find the information I am looking for.</p>
<p>When reporting the cost of my house - Can I include captial improvements I have made since it was purchased - similar to calculating capital gains for federal income taxes on the sale of a house?</p>
<p>The amount of money we have put into the house is very substantial since when we purchased it was a newly built house and we installed professional landscaping on a very large piece of property, multiple patios, pool, etc. All of this was done with cash after the purchase of the house.</p>
<p>Well, you can’t subtract the value of the improvements you’ve made if that’s what you’re asking.</p>
<p>However, the CSS Profile will ask you when you bought it, how much you paid for it, what its market value is currently. The second thing --how much you paid for it-- will reflect its original unimproved value. It’s usually impossible to know what any given college will do with all that information. They all have their individual policies and formulas.</p>
<p>Don’t inflate its value, however. This is a lousy market, and your assesment of its current value should reflect what you could actually sell it for… not what you could sell it for in a better market.</p>
<p>For our house, I just averaged the sell price of two other houses in neighborhood that are similar in size and age to ours.</p>