Is storm damage to a home deductible?

The declared-disaster gate

Storm damage is a classic casualty: sudden, unexpected and unusual. The publication lists storms, including hurricanes and tornadoes, floods and earthquakes among the causes. But the current rule adds a gate. An individual’s casualty loss on personal-use property, which includes your home, is deductible only if attributable to a federally declared disaster. The publication’s own example shows what that means in practice. In December 2023 a storm dropped a tree on a house, causing $5,000 of damage. The storm was not declared a disaster. The insurer paid $3,000 in January 2025 and decided it owed nothing more, so a $2,000 loss was sustained in 2025. Because the storm was not a federal disaster, the $2,000 was not deductible. The only exception is where you have personal casualty gains, which the loss can offset.

Treat the home and land as one item

For personal-use real estate, the publication says everything is considered together: the building, the land it sits on, and improvements such as ornamental trees and shrubs. You compare the decrease in value of the whole property to the adjusted basis of the whole property and use the smaller one. Take the publication’s lakeside cottage. It cost $144,800 including $14,500 of land. A tornado leaves only land worth $35,000 out of a $180,000 property, so the decrease is $145,000, which is more than the $144,800 basis, and the loss is the smaller $144,800. The insurer paid $130,000, leaving $14,800. Subtract $100 for $14,700, subtract 10% of the $80,000 AGI, and the deduction is $6,700.

A second example: a hurricane destroys a home and damages the yard. Basis is $152,000 (house, land and $2,000 of landscaping), the value drops from $175,000 to $50,000, a $125,000 decrease, the insurer pays $95,000 and AGI is $70,000. Loss $125,000, minus insurance leaves $30,000, minus $100 leaves $29,900, minus $7,000 gives $22,900. The calculator reproduces both lines.

Furniture and contents are separate

Household furnishings and other personal property are not part of the real-property item. The publication says you figure each personal item separately, add them, and then apply a single $100 and the 10% rule to the combined total. In its example a hurricane that is a federally declared disaster damages a home that cost $164,000 including land, with a drop from $170,000 to $100,000 and $50,000 of insurance, plus $600 of uninsured furniture loss. The real property loss after insurance is $20,000, the total is $20,600, less $100 is $20,500, less 10% of $65,000 AGI is a $14,000 deduction.

Repairs, cleanup and what is not a loss

The cost of repairing damaged property is not itself part of the casualty loss, and neither is cleanup, though the actual cost of repairs can be used to measure the decrease in value if the repairs are necessary, not excessive, restore only the pre-storm condition, and do not leave the property worth more than before. Removing destroyed trees and replanting can serve as the measure for landscaping. The cost of protecting property, such as boarding up windows ahead of a storm, is not part of the loss. Mere progressive deterioration is not a storm casualty, though a sudden, unusual event can be. If a state or local government orders a home in a declared disaster area demolished or moved because the disaster made it unsafe, and issues the order within 120 days, the lost value is treated as a casualty loss; the publication’s example is a mudslide risk after a storm.

Using the calculator

Enter the basis of the entire property, including land, house and landscaping, then the value of the entire property before and after the storm, not just the house. Add insurance, your adjusted gross income, and tick the box only if the storm was a federally declared disaster. With the box unticked the calculator shows a zero deduction because the loss could only offset personal casualty gains, which this page does not model.

What you should do first

File the insurance claim. If you do not file a claim you can deduct only the part not covered by the policy, though a deductible you must absorb counts. With a $1,000 deductible on storm damage the $1,000 can be a loss subject to the $100 and 10% rules, even with no claim. For the insurance rules see how insurance reimbursement affects a casualty loss; for the generic steps see figuring a personal-property loss; and for the declared-disaster election see disaster losses.

Sources

• IRS Publication 547, Casualties, Disasters, and Thefts (2025): Casualty; Real property; Home made unsafe by disaster. Read November 2, 2026.

Edition read: Publication 547 (2025), for use in preparing 2025 returns. Dollar limits and dates on this page are the figures printed in that edition; legislation enacted after it was published is not reflected, so check the current publication, Form 4684 and its instructions for your tax year. This page summarizes the publication and does not replace it.