# Timeshare Owners Bailout



## Kauai Kid (Oct 2, 2008)

If I buy a timeshare for $15,000 and end up selling it for  a buck on ebay are there any bills pending in DC to reimburse me for my loss of $14,999??? 

Seriously, are there any methods to recover your losses when you sell a time-share at a loss?  Or are the gains the time share sleeze balls promise offset by the losses of reality?

Quick, where is that umbrella drink.



Sterling


----------



## DeniseM (Oct 2, 2008)

If you are asking if you can declare the loss on your taxes if you sell a TS at a loss - the answer is no.  There is a whole article about taxes and timeshares on the Advice page with details.


----------



## aliikai2 (Oct 2, 2008)

*Timeshare Owners Bailout???*

When I saw the title I thought maybe Sterling had taken up skydiving 

Either that or Steve N was flying a hang glider from the lookout in Koke Park.

Glad to see it was just about the plunging values of todays investments in timeshares 

fwiw,

Greg
.


Kauai Kid said:


> If I buy a timeshare for $15,000 and end up selling it for  a buck on ebay are there any bills pending in DC to reimburse me for my loss of $14,999???
> 
> Seriously, are there any methods to recover your losses when you sell a time-share at a loss?  Or are the gains the time share sleeze balls promise offset by the losses of reality?
> 
> ...


----------



## tombo (Oct 2, 2008)

As I understand it, you can't write off losses on timeshares, but you can use losses to offset any gains you have made on the sale of timeshares in the same year. Same thing about renting. You can't write of MF's or ad expenses, but you can use your expenses to reduce the amount of rental income you have to claim.

I am not a lawyer or accountant so please don't assume this is correct. This is how it is supposed to work.


----------



## rapmarks (Oct 3, 2008)

you can't deduct losses on the sale of your principal residence either.  My son bought a home 3 and a half years ago and had to sell to get closer to work.  he took at least a 60,000 dollar loss and gets no deduction on his income tax.


----------



## BocaBum99 (Oct 3, 2008)

Yes, you can create a business that buys and sells timeshares.  You can deduct the loss of the sale against the profit of other sales.  But, you need to set it up properly.


----------



## seatrout (Oct 7, 2008)

BocaBum99 said:


> Yes, you can create a business that buys and sells timeshares.  You can deduct the loss of the sale against the profit of other sales.  But, you need to set it up properly.




Assuming that I get the business set up properly--

Can I go out and buy my first TS for the business-- then  got punch in the face and sold it at a loss-  then give up on the business ??


----------



## T_R_Oglodyte (Oct 7, 2008)

BocaBum99 said:


> Yes, you can create a business that buys and sells timeshares.  You can deduct the loss of the sale against the profit of other sales.  But, you need to set it up properly.



And operate it properly.  You need to be sure that it meets the requirements to not be classed as a "hobby" business.


----------



## AwayWeGo (Oct 7, 2008)

*Depends On What The Meaning Of "Properly" Is.*




BocaBum99 said:


> Yes, you can create a business that buys and sells timeshares.  You can deduct the loss of the sale against the profit of other sales.  But, you need to set it up properly.


If you set the business up real good & proper, maybe you can devise some crafty scheme for hornswoggling disgruntled timeshare owners into paying _you_ just to take their timeshares off their hands. 

Wouldn't _that_ be something ? 

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​


----------



## alanraycole (Oct 7, 2008)

*Is this just really good satire?*

When I read the first post in this thread, I chuckled at what I took as satire. Then I noticed that people were responding as if the OP was serious. So, I reread the post and noticed that the first statement was clearly satire. But, the second may have been serious. 

Then, the other Alan Cole made a reference to creating a company that asks timeshare owners to pay the company to take the timeshare off the owner's hands. I, again, assume the comment is satirical because not only do such companies already exist, but they have also been thoroughly criticized on this site. 

Just checking.


----------



## AwayWeGo (Oct 7, 2008)

*Hey!  I Thought The Other Alan Cole Was You.*




alanraycole said:


> Then, the other Alan Cole made a reference to creating a company that asks timeshare owners to pay the company to take the timeshare off the owner's hands. I, again, assume the comment is satirical because not only do such companies already exist, but they have also been thoroughly criticized on this site.
> 
> Just checking.


Whichever way it is, though, we Alan Cole folks still need to stick together. 

Right ? 

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​


----------



## alanraycole (Oct 7, 2008)

*Yes, you are right...*

You are Alan Cole and I am just the other Alan Cole. Sorry, you clearly were a member here first and more importantly, you were on the planet first.

And, YES! We Alan Cole folks always stick together. While we are on this subject, are we related? Here is my genealogy... recognize any connection?

William Cole (born 1745 in Virginia) & Nellie Freeman
William Cole (1777 in Kentucky) & Martitia Crawford
O. Cole (1805 in Kentucky) & Paulina Bennett
Speed Cole (1838 in Kentucky) & Americus Snodgrass
Stanley Clarence Cole (1885 in Kentucky) & Elizabeth Clutts
Carl Elwood Cole (1911 in Kentucky) & Ina
Fredric Alan Cole (1938 in Ohio) & Marcella 
Alan Ray Cole (1961)


----------



## AwayWeGo (Oct 7, 2008)

*Branches On The Family Tree.*

Hi Alan Ray -- 

I don't know my family tree as well as I'd like -- as in hardly any knowledge at all.  

My parents grew up & got married in Indianapolis IN.  Dad moved us here in 1949, so I'm the next thing to a Northern Virginia native. 

father = Benjamin Richason Cole (1916-2002) 
mother = Alice Porteous Cole (1914-1982) 

grandfather = Almon Theodore Cole (known to all who knew him as A.T. Cole) 
grandmother = Maude Richason Cole 

grandfather = Andrew Porteous, emigrated from Glasgow, Scotland, to USA 
grandmother = Amy Lawson Porteous, emigrated from Whitby, Yorkshire (England), to USA 

That's just the bare bones of a family tree, but that's all I have any acquaintance with.  My mother's brother did lots of research into the Porteous family tree, even going so far as to write a book on the subject that he published privately.  Nobody's done anything comparable about our corner of the Cole clan.  So it goes. 

It would not surprise me in the least if Granddad Cole -- old A.T. Cole himself -- was related to your Kentucky Coles like O. Cole & Speed Cole & Stanley Clarence Cole.  Were they from western Kentucky?   A.T. Cole, I believe, was from Shawneetown, Illinois -- just a hop, skip, & jump across the river from Blackburn, Kentucky. 

Shux, you & I might even be semi-distant cousins.  Small world, eh ? 

BTW, my younger son moved to California nearly 20 years ago & soon went native.  That is, he arranged his name in a semi-creative way.  His 1st name is now Cole.  His last name is now Alanson -- Alan's Son, get it ? 

At the rehearsal dinner the night before Cole Alanson's wedding last July, several members of the bride's family greeted me as "Mr. Alanson" & said how glad they were to meet me.  Before dessert, when I got up to say a few words of welcome to all the wedding guests, I used that as the occasion to explain the evolution of our son's name in a way calculated to clear it all up without embarrassing anybody.  

-- Alan [Andrew] Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​


----------



## dougp26364 (Oct 7, 2008)

Kauai Kid said:


> If I buy a timeshare for $15,000 and end up selling it for  a buck on ebay are there any bills pending in DC to reimburse me for my loss of $14,999???
> 
> Seriously, are there any methods to recover your losses when you sell a time-share at a loss?  Or are the gains the time share sleeze balls promise offset by the losses of reality?
> 
> ...




Apparently, if you're an insurance company that invested badly (maybe in timeshares) and had to recieve $85 billion from the government to bail you out, that umbrella drink comes with an expensive room, expensive meals and spa treatments at an exclusive resort in California.  

Man did I take the wrong courses at the community college.


----------



## alanraycole (Oct 7, 2008)

*My Kentucky kin are from Appalachian area of Kentucky.*



AwayWeGo said:


> It would not surprise me in the least if Granddad Cole -- old A.T. Cole himself -- was related to your Kentucky Coles like O. Cole & Speed Cole & Stanley Clarence Cole.  Were they from western Kentucky?   A.T. Cole, I believe, was from Shawneetown, Illinois -- just a hop, skip, & jump across the river from Blackburn, Kentucky.
> -- Alan [Andrew] Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​



Just as my grandparents migrated from the hills of Kentucky for better jobs, many other Hillbilly Coles did the same. So, maybe, we are related futher up the family tree. 

The jobs may have been better in Cincinnati when my grandparents moved there at about the time of my parents' birth, but they traded down when it comes to the surrounding natural beauty. Except for the absence of an ocean, Appalachia almost rivals Hawaii in beauty. For what it is worth, every other branch of my family also comes from the Appalachian area of Kentucky, where they lived since before the founding of the country.


----------

