Investors & landlords

I sold a rental property purchased in 2009 in 2019. ...  I only used Turbo Tax since 2014 so TTax may not have the correct depreciation total taken since 2009.

Don't guess on this. Confirm it one way or the other.

Assuming the first time you used TTX was in 2015 to file your 2014 tax return, pull up the PDF or get the printout for your 2014 tax return. You're looking for two IRS Form 4562's and they will both print in landscape format. One is titled "Amortization & Depreciation Report" and the other is "Alternative Minimum Tax Depreciation". You're more interested in the first one.

At an absolute minimum the rental property itself will be listed on that form. If you did any property improvements between 2009 and 2014, then those will be shown also. For each asset listed if there is an amount in the "Prior Year's Depr" column, then you're good to go. If there is not an amount there, then stop reading now. You have an issue that needs to be addressed *BEFORE* you can correctly report this sale in TurboTax.

Is there a place in TTax to see this total amount and where it came from?

As you work through the assets in the Assets/Deprecation section, there's a screen that shows you the amount of prior year's depreciation that the program is "aware" of. (What it's aware of, depends on how you did things the first year you started using the TTX program.)

Am I correct to do a sum of all the depreciation amounts noted in Sch E line 18 or line 20 from 2009 to 2018 to find the total depreciation I have taken and use this amount as the depreciation recapture amount in TTax 2019?

While it may work for some scenarios, that is not the correct way to "ensure" beyond any doubt that you have the correct depreciation amount to recapture for *that* *specific* *property* that you sold.

If the above is not the proper way to do it, how should I do it?

Actually, *you* don't do it. The program does this for you, assuming that you actually started with the right figures for depreciation when you started using TTX for your 2014 taxes.

Where do I enter the total depreciation amount to be recaptured in TT 2019?

Again, "you" don't. The program does all this math for you. Just follow the guidance below.

Reporting the Sale of Rental Property

If you qualify for the "lived in 2 of last 5 years" capital gains exclusion, then when prompted you WILL indicate that this sale DOES INCLUDE the sale of your main home. For AD MIL personnel who don't qualify because of PCS orders, select this option anyway, because you "MIGHT" qualify for at last a partial exclusion.

Start working through Rental & Royalty Income (SCH E) "AS IF" you did not sell the property. One of the screens near the start will ahve a selection on it for "I sold or otherwise disposed of this property in  2019". Select it. After you select the "I sold or otherwise disposed of this property in 2019" you continue working it through "as if" you still own it. When you come to the summary screen you will enter all of your rental income and expenses, even it it's zero. Then you MUST work through the "Sale of Assets/Depreciation" section. You must work through each individual asset one at a time to report its disposition (in your case, all your rental assets were sold).

Understand that if more than the property itself is listed in your assets list, then you need to allocate your sales price across all of your assets.  You will only allocate the structure sales price; you will NOT allocate the land sales price, since the land is not a depreciable asset.  Then if you sold this rental at a gain, you must show a gain on all assets, even if that gain is $1. Likewise, if you sold at a loss then you must show a loss on all assets, even if that loss is $1

Basically, when working through an asset you select the option for "I stopped using this asset in 2019" and go from there. Note that you MUST do this for EACH AND EVERY asset listed.

When you finish working through everything listed in the assets section, if you ever at any time you owned this rental you claimed vehicle expenses, then you must also work through the vehicle section and show the disposition of the vehicle. Most likely, your vehicle disposition will be "removed for personal use", as I seriously doubt you sold your vehicle as a part of this rental sale.