Residential rental real estate does not qualify. Appliances are not classified as residential real estate.
Rental property, especially if there's a mortgage on it, rarely operates at a taxable gain on paper at tax filing time. That doesn't mean its impossible. For residential rental property to operate at a taxable profit is possible, but not all that common. I've only seen three situations where residential rental property actually operated at a taxable profit.
1) The property is paid off, therefore no mortgage interest deduction. (I have one of my rentals like this.)
2) The property and any separately listed assets are completely depreciated.
3) The cost basis of the property was so low, it was almost impossible to "not" show a taxable gain. I saw this on a rental property that was foreclosed on and someone got at auction for less than $8,000. Were it me, allocating $1K for the land and the remaining 7K for the structure would have made it hard to not make a taxable profit - even if placed in service in the last quarter of the tax year. (assuming it actually got rented out and produced income in that last quarter.)
There is a fourth possibility, but I've never seen it. That's where the rent charged is at least 3 times or more higher than the mortgage payment.
For some reason, I commonly get the percentages for SEC179 and SDA flipped. As you're aware, the rules for both are rather complex. But when AGI figures into the equation, the TTX program seems to handle it just fine. I've never actually tested for all possibilities though, as like you, I'm just not that bored.
Oh btw - your assumptions about my income are wrong. Sure wish you were right on that front though. 🙂
