Installment Method

An installment sale is a sale of property where you receive at least one payment after the tax year of the sale. A farmer who isn’t required to maintain an inventory can use the installment method to report gain from the sale of property used or produced in farming. See Inventory, later, for information on the sale of farm property where inventory items are included in the assets sold.

If a sale qualifies as an installment sale, the gain must be reported under the installment method unless you elect out of using the installment method.

Electing out of the installment method. If you elect not to use the installment method, you generally report the entire gain in the year of

Inventory. If you aren’t required to maintain (keep a record of beginning and ending) inventories under your method of accounting, you can report gain from the sale of farm inventory using the installment method. Complete Form 6252 to figure the amount of installment gain to report each year from the sale of farm inventory and carry that amount to line 8 of Schedule F (Form 1040).

If you are required to maintain inventories under your method of accounting, you can’t report gain from the sale of farm inventory using the installment method. All gain or loss on the sale of farm inventory must be reported in the year of sale, even if you receive payment in later years. If inventory items are included in an installment sale, you may have an agreement stating which payments are for inventory and which are for the other assets being sold. If you don’t, each payment must be allocated between the inventory and the other assets sold. However, see Election to pay tax on farmland sale or exchange in installments earlier.

Publication 225 (2025) Chapter 10 Installment Sales 63

Figuring Adjusted Basis and Gross Profit Percentage

Keep for Your Records

More information. See Inventory under Sale of a Business in Pub. 537 for more information.

Sale at a loss. If your sale results in a loss, you can’t use the installment method. If the loss is on an installment sale of business assets, you can deduct it only in the tax year of sale.

Figuring Installment Sale Income

Each payment on an installment sale usually consists of the following three parts.

• Interest income.

• Return of your adjusted basis in the property.

• Gain on the sale.

In each year you receive a payment, you must include in income both the interest part and the part that is your gain on the sale. Don’t include in income the part that is the return of your basis in the property. Basis is the amount of your investment in the property for installment sale purposes.

Interest income. You must report interest as ordinary income. Interest generally isn’t included in a down payment. However, you may have to treat part of each later payment as interest, even if it isn’t called interest in your agreement with the buyer. Interest provided in the agreement is called stated interest. If the agreement doesn’t provide for enough stated interest, there may be unstated interest or original issue discount (OID). See Unstated interest , later.

You must continue to report the interest