Can we account for our 20 years labor building our cottage as well as the material receipts when calculating the purchase value and what date do we use as purchase date?

bgreniuk · ‎October 30, 2019

We purchased an empty lake property 23 years ago. We cleared it, filled the low spots and built a home 1600 square foot home over the last 20 odd years. I have land and material receipts for approximately $200000 and some labor receipts for approximately $20000. We sold the property for $475000 before real estate commissions and survey costs which amounted to almost $25000. Since it was mostly my families labor that built the place can I somehow add our labor to the value of our cottage or do I have to pay capitol gains on $230000? Additionally what do I enter as a purchase date?

TurboTaxSusan · ‎October 30, 2019

You can’t claim the value of your own services or labour. However, you can add the cost of materials used to build the building initially, as well as materials you used in renovations or additions that added value to the property (Captial Expenses). You can subtract the expenses from the ACB (adjusted cost base).

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/businesses/topics/rental-income/current-expense...

If you are selling the land & the building together, then the purchase date would be the date that the land was bought.

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Can we account for our 20 years labor building our cottage as well as the material receipts when calculating the purchase value and what date do we use as purchase date?

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