I have owned and rented out this property 10 years, but in 2015 I ceased renting it and moved my yard and landscaping business into it. How do I handle this change?
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Yes. Since this was commercial rental property (as opposed to residential rental) I assume you presently have it set up on the SCH E to depreciate over 39 years, instead of the standard 27.5 years for residential property.
First on the SCH E you will indicate that you "sold or otherwise disposed of this property in 2015". Then work it through to the summary screen. After you finish reporting any rental income and expenses, work through the "Sale of Assets/Depreciation" section.
If more than just the property itself is listed there, you must work through each individual asset one at a time and indicate it's disposition. You'll indicate that you stopped using the asset in 2015, then on the special handling screen you'll select yes to indicate that you removed it for personal use. The disposition date you enter is the date that depreciation will stop on these assets. Take note that you will need to write down your depreciation figures, because you will need them when you transfer/set up this property as *your* business asset on the SCH C.
For each asset, add together the prior year's deprecation already taken, and the current year's deprecation to be taken. That figure (for each asset) will give you the total depreciation taken for the entire time that asset was in service as a passive rental income producing asset. You will need this figure for the SCH C.
When you set this up in Business Assets section of your business, you WILL indicate that it was used for business purposes in the past. Your "in service" date must be at least one day after you removed it for personal use on the SCH E. You'll be prompted for depreciation already taken, and you'll use the figure you wrote down for that asset. This will continue depreciation on the property for whatever amount of time is remaining of your 39 years to depreciate that you are allowed.
If you have questions, please let me know. But to keep it simple for both of us, work through and finish the SCH E first, in it's entirety before you even begin with the SCH C business stuff.
When your tax return is done in it's entirety, all of your expenses for this, including mortgage interest, property taxes and insurance will be split between the SCH E for the period of time it was producing passive rental income, and SCH C for the period of time it was your active business asset in 2015. That will make your 2015 tax return the last one you will report this property on a SCH E.
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