Depreciation calculation of vacation rental was different in 2019 than in 2020

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
March 29, 2021
3 replies
23 views

In 2019 Turbo tax, the depreciation deduction of my vacation rental was based on 100% (business use percentage). Available to rent all but 7 personal days used. Entered 92 days rented and 7 personal use days. Turbo tax calculated business use percentage as100% .

In 2020 Turbo tax, the depreciation deduction was based 93.58% (business use percentage). Available to rent all but 7 personal days used. 102 days actually rented. Entered 102 days rented and 7 personal use days. Turbo tax calculated business use percentage as 93.58% .

Why is the business use calculated differently for depreciation these two years? Is depreciation treated differently than other expenses? Should the fair rental days be 358 for available rental days or the actual days occupied as a rental?

TurboTax Home & Biz Windows

can80n

Level 2

I have the same question. Did you ever get a response?

CGWLAuthor

Level 2

No, unfortuneatly, I heard nothing.

AmeliesUncle

Level 15

@CGWL wrote:
In 2019 Turbo tax, the depreciation deduction of my vacation rental was based on 100% (business use percentage). Available to rent all but 7 personal days used. Entered 92 days rented and 7 personal use days. Turbo tax calculated business use percentage as100% .

In 2020 Turbo tax, the depreciation deduction was based 93.58% (business use percentage). Available to rent all but 7 personal days used. 102 days actually rented. Entered 102 days rented and 7 personal use days. Turbo tax calculated business use percentage as 93.58% .

The last I checked, you need to manually change the depreciation business percentage each year. TurboTax doesn't really change the depreciation percentage based on entering the days. However, based on what you are saying, that may have changed for 2020.

Because there were personal days, the "IRS Method" would be to divide the total days actually rented by the total days used. So 2019 would be 92/99 (92.93%) and 2020 would be 102/109 (93.58%).

If you use the "Tax Court Method", it is based on the actual days rented divided by the number of days in the year. So 2019 would be 92/365 and 2020 would be 102/365.