The gain or loss on each asset is figured separately. The sale of capital assets results in capital gain or loss.In this article, we discuss what asset sales are, how they work and how to calculate a loss or gain because of an asset sale. An asset sale will likely result in a combination of gain taxed at both ordinary and capital gains rates, depending on the nature of the individual assets. In an asset sale, the new owner purchases the business's physical assets. The seller retains all rights to the legal entity. You will need to allocate the amount reflected on form 8594 among all the assets. A typical method is to allocate the proceeds based on the original cost. When we're talking about the gain or loss of the sale of an asset we need to be looking at net book value at the time of the sale.