How to calculate depreciation on rental property

Forum|Forum|3 months ago
March 12, 2026
2 replies
13 views

Hello everyone

We have a rental house that sat vacant for about two months before we began renting it out for the first time, and I have a couple of questions:

1) How do you calculate depreciation for a rental property? Could you share a useful source? The house is about 20 years old.

2) Besides mortgage interest, property taxes, insurance, repairs, maintenance, and utilities, is there anything else I can deduct for those two vacant months?

Best,

Best answer by M-MTax

Expert Reviewed

@alextargetn wrote:
2) Besides mortgage interest, property taxes, insurance, repairs, maintenance, and utilities, is there anything else I can deduct for those two vacant months?

You can deduct ordinary and necessary rental expenses for those two months provided the property was ready and available for rental use.

M-MTax

Level 15

@alextargetn wrote:
1) How do you calculate depreciation for a rental property? Could you share a useful source?

Are you using tax software to report the income and expenses on your rental? If not you'll have to make the calculation manually using the table below.

For your depreciable basis, you will use the lesser of your adjusted basis (purchase price plus improvements, less casualty losses claimed) and the fair market value on the date of the conversion to rental use.

M-MTaxAnswer

Level 15

Expert Reviewed

@alextargetn wrote:
2) Besides mortgage interest, property taxes, insurance, repairs, maintenance, and utilities, is there anything else I can deduct for those two vacant months?

You can deduct ordinary and necessary rental expenses for those two months provided the property was ready and available for rental use.