Three part question.
I rent out a portion of our property and this year it was vacant for several months as we looked for a tenant. I continued to list the property so it's my understanding that I can deduct depreciation, taxes, insurance, etc. However, can I also deduct the rental portion's share of utilities, such as electric, internet, etc? The rental was vacant in this time so no tenants were really using these utilities, but if it is acceptable, I would of course prefer to deduct it.
Typically, I caclulate the portion of our expenses for the rental based on number of people (ie, we are two adults, if there are two adults in the rental, I assign 50% of expenses). But this year, if it's vacant for several months, it seems I couldn't use this rule. Would I need to use the square footage rule instead and assign percentage based on square footage, and, if so, do I need to be consistent through the whole year with the method I chose? Or can I go back and forth?
Third, a TurboTax technical question. When TT asks me if the property was rented all year, am I supposed to say 'yes', since it was available for rent and we were looking for tenants - and 'no' would generate a partial-year rental? Or should I say 'no'.
Many Thanks in advance.
