I am a several years behind on filing. No worries, I won't owe, but I have a house I rented for a few years and it got red-tagged by the county. I can't rent it, until I do some major repairs, but it is not a personal use property. Strictly a rental. It has been sitting a couple of years due to lack of funds and time to do the repairs.
Now that I am doing the taxes, I am thinking of putting down zero days rented in 2021, but 365 days as a rental. This cuts out deductions, but seems to maintain rental status rather than personal use. I am ok without the deductions (utilities, property taxes, insurance -about 6k) as I won't pay taxes anyway. But I would like to capitalize any expenses I can and add to basis. I plan to get the house up and ready to go this year ('24) but the interim is what I am looking at.
Main Q is, what expenses can be capitalized when a rental is not available for rent? It seems to me, the situation is similar to when you buy a rental and a you cannot deduct expenses (sch E), but you can capitalize improvements and carrying charges prior to when it is placed into service.
Looking for tax advice more than technical advice on how to make the program do what I want. I got that.
