Ok, so my original question was 4 months ago. I can't recall exactly what Turbo Tax was doing that was frustrating me, but I do remember that there didn't seem to be a clear way to determine how Turbo Tax was calculating the depreciable basis.
Carl, to your question about "whom": Assessed by the local Central Appraisal District for property tax purposes. Yes, obviously I can't use the property tax value as my depreciable basis. But when I buy a property, I can use the assessed value of the land as the land value for determining my depreciable basis (actual expenses less property appraised land value). But do I HAVE to use that ratio? Let's say I bought the property for $100K and the land value assessed was $30K (70/30). But then the next year I added a $10K kitchen upgrade. When I turn it into a rental the year after that, using the ratio method (which I believe Turbo Tax does), my depreciable basis is 70% of $110K or $77K. I don't know if this is wrong, but it seems like my depreciable basis ought to be my actual expenses: $70K for improvements when I bought it + $10K for the kitchen remodel which would be $80K. Improving the kitchen shouldn't increase the land value, just the improvements value. The way TT was doing it was reducing my allowable depreciation, and therefore causing me to pay more in taxes than I think I should have paid.
