Because I am doing the splits manually (myself) in the rental (schE) part, please help me understand how to also do it correctly in the deduction (schA) part...
My difficulty is understand what it is you don't understand. So please bear with me if I come across as rude. That's not by intent, but for simplicity and brevity.
First, understand that property insurance is "NOT" deductible on the SCH A. Property insurance is "never" deductible on personal use property, and never has been. So when you pro-rate the property insurance for the time the property was a rental in 2019, the difference is *not* entered anywhere else on "any" tax return. (Federal or state)
If your property taxes for the year was $1,200 and you converted the property to a rental on Oct 1 of 2019, simply do the math.
$1,200 divided by 12 months in the year is $100 a month in property taxes. The property was personal use for the first 9 months of the year. So $900 is entered on the SCH A and you "WILL" check the box that indicates what you entered *DOES* *NOT* *MATCH* what is on your property tax bill, if (and only if) you are offered that checkbox to select. The difference is a SCH E rental property deduction.
Now lets say the mortgage interest reported to you on the 1098-Mortgage Interest Statement for that property is $7000. That amount divided by 12 months comes out to $583.33 a month. Since the property was personal use for the first 9 months of the year, $583.33 times 9 months gives us $5,249.97. The program will round that to the nearest dollar. So the amount of $5,250 will be what you enter on the SCH A for the Mortgage Interest deduction. Again, if presented a checkbox for indicating the amount entered is different that what's on your 1098, then you *WILL* check that box. The difference is a SCH E rental property deduction.
