This example should help: I built the house for $125,000 in 1980 on my pre-owed property. I then prorated it for the 19 days of rental by multiplying it by 19/365 = 0.0521. Then to get the basis I took 0.0521 x $125000 = $6507 which is the number I expected to find on Schedule E, Form 4562, Line 19 column c, Basis for depreciation. By comparison they by got $5210, i.e. about $700 more. Then I divided my $6507 basis by 27.5 years = $237 for my deduction in Column 19g. By comparison TTax got $24 by whatever mysterious method they were using. What did I/they do wrong?
