Carl
Level 15

Investors & landlords

which makes sense because in 2019 I put fair rental days of of 190 and personal use days of 145

Think you messed up there. While possible, I seriously doubt you lived in the property as your primary residence, 2nd home, vacation home or any other "personal pleasure" type of use for 145 days of the tax year, while the property was classified as a rental. (KEY HERE FOR PERSONAL USE DAYS!!!! *WHILE THE PROPERTY WAS CLASSIFIED AS A RENTAL*).

So unless you or a related person "actually did" live in the property for 145 days as your primary residence, 2nd home, vacation home or any other "personal pleasure" type of use, and the property was classified as a rental for the entire tax year, your personal use days would be ZERO.

. I must have converted it by putting personal use days when I should have put 0. At that time it wasn't rented, but I thought that it had to total up to 365 days!

Not quite. Days rented and personal use days must add up to 365 "or less". Personal use days while the property is classified as a rental do count against you, as far as rental expenses go. But vacant periods do not count against you.

you need to amend the 2019 return to show the property was classified as a rental for the entire tax year with ZERO personal use days.

Then you need to amend the 2020 tax return to enter the correct amount of "prior year deprec" on that one. Then you need to amend the 2021 tax return for the same reason. The big PITA with this, is that when you amend a tax return, you can not import anything from the prior year tax return. So for both the 2020 and 2021 tax return, you'll have to manually enter the correct amount of "prior year's deprec" taken. What can make it even more complicated, is if you have multiple assets listed in the assets/depreciation section, as you'll have to ensure each individual asset shows 100% of the allowed depreciation for each tax year.

Of course, this is also assuming the property actually qualifies to be reported on SCH E for 2020 and 2021. Having rented to a "related party" at less than FMRV (Fair Market Rental Value) means the rental income is reported as "other income" and nothing gets reported on SCH E, as the property is considered to have been personal use during such time.

Overall as I see it, throwing a 1031 exchange in the mix really messes things up but good. I would highly suggest you seek professional help in dealing with this. Especially if your state taxes personal income. Otherwise, this could turn into a double-whammy if you're ever audited on this or called out by the IRS or the state.  Should that happen, the associated costs would probably make the cost of professional help seem like a pittance in comparison.