Rental Property Sale

Hello,

I have a few questions concerning rental properties in TurboTax.

First, when I fill out the depreciation for my rental property, it takes me to a page about the prior depreciation for the property. It already has the depreciation calculated, and says the calculation should be correct based on the information I have entered. But when I look at my previous tax years (which I did with a tax professional, not TurboTax), there is no depreciation taken in any of the past years. So I put 0 for past depreciation. Is this correct? Am I allowed to do this, or is TurboTax's calculation correct and I should just use that? I have read conflicting articles on line, with saying that regardless of depreciation in past years, the IRS wants the total depreciation from the previous years regardless of whether you actually took them or not in the tax forms.

Related to this, when I report the sale of a rental property, again in the depreciation section, it calculates the AMT depreciation and says this should be correct and to use that unless I have a correction to enter. But I can see in my previous tax forms that my tax professional did not take any depreciation over the years. So I put in 0 for depreciation. Again, is this allowed? I have read online that you must include the depreciation basically as calculated by TurboTax regardless of whether you actually took the depreciation in previous years. Is this true? Did my professional make a mistake in previous years? Would I need to then amend my previous years' returns to claim the depreciation which I am now forced to recapture when I sell the property?

In the final page of the sale of rental property, it says you might have to report unrecaptured section 1231 losses. I tried following the instructions but could not determine whether this applied to me. It says to use the earliest of the previous five years' tax returns that has a loss in line 7. Does this mean line 7 of form 1040? I was confused because on my 2018 return line 7 is adjusted gross income, while on the 2020 return line 7 is capital gain or (loss). How exactly should I determine whether unrecaptured section 1231 losses apply to me?

When filling out the sale of rental property, it asked whether special handling was required. I put no and it seemed to be the right choice, but in the special handling requirements page it says say yes if this asset is a rental, home, home office, or home office improvement, which my property seems to be. Why is this worded like this when clicking no clearly takes you to the page to submit the sale of rental property information?

Finally, there was a question of whether you made any business purchases of $2500 or less during 2021 for business, rental property, or farms, etc. I said yes and it asked whether I wanted to depreciate the expenses or take a one time annual expense. I chose one time annual expense and I believe it took me to a page that said to then enter my rental purchases in Miscellaneous Expenses section of the rental property. That is what I did. But when I tried to review my selection again, it never showed me that page again. It just took me to the rental property review page. I want to make sure that is what I am supposed to do. And, if I chose to use one time annual expense deduction for some assets, must I use that for all other assets for the 2021 return (meaning I can't depreciate other assets)? And is this choice just for the 2021 return or does it apply to all other returns in future years?

Thanks for your help.