Basically, just work it through the SCH E section of the program showing the conversion of your property from personal use to rental property. One thing I can't stress enough is to read the small print on each screen. The program will do some of the splits for you between SCH A for the period of time it was your residence, and SCH E for the period of time it was a rental. But the program will *NOT* do all the splits. So you have to read the small print on every single screen.
Basically, the program will split the mortgage interest. But it may or may not split everything else, depending on your specific and explicit situation. The below information will help clarify "some" things for you.
Rental Property Dates & Numbers That Matter.
Date of Conversion - If this was your primary residence before, then this date is the day AFTER you moved out.
In Service Date - This is the date a renter "could" have moved in. Usually, this date is the day you put the FOR RENT sign in the front yard.
Number of days Rented - the day count for this starts from the first day a renter "could" have moved in. That should be your "in service" date if you were asked for that. Vacant periods between renters count also PROVIDED you did not live in the house for one single day during said period of vacancy.
Days of Personal Use - This number will be a big fat ZERO. Read the screen. It's asking for the number of days you lived in the property AFTER you converted it to a rental. I seriously doubt (though it is possible) that you lived in the house (or space, if renting a part of your home) as your primary residence or 2nd home, after you converted it to a rental.
Business Use Percentage. 100%. I'll put that in words so there's no doubt I didn't make a typo here. One Hundred Percent. After you converted this property or space to rental use, it was one hundred percent business use. What you used it for prior to the date of conversion doesn't count.
