So, I have managed to do the manual calculations for the expenses of my rental portion of my property based on the days used for rent and the percentage of sq/ft of the home. However, the value for the depreciation amount seems too high. The problem is, TurboTax will not let me enter depreciation as a percentage of overall property. It asks for the cost basis info and then how many days used for rental, etc. but how can I adjust it for the percentage it is of the overall home? Frustrated and hoping someone can point me in the right direction.
I take it you are renting out a portion of your primary residence.
Work through the asset in the assets/depreciation section. There is a screen that will ask you:
"Percentage of time this property was a rental in 2021" (or something close to that). For your specific and explicit situation, that is the wrong question to be asked. It should be asking you percentage of "SPACE" that is exclusive to the renter. Yes, I know you've already entered that on a previous screen. But where it asks for percentage of time, enter the same percentage of space you entered before. Then the depreciation will be right.
To check the depreciation and "Know" it's right, see IRS Publication 946 at https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p946.pdf and use the worksheet on page 37. The table that applies to line 6 of that worksheet is table A-6 on page 72.
Unfortunately I never get asked for a percentage of space. This came up in a prior question I posed and I think it might be because I have a home office. Any other options?
For starters, a home office is not allowed for residential rental (it is for commercial rental). Second, if you are not asked for percentage of space, then you did not select the option for "I rent out a part of my home", and you need to select that in the property profile section.
So I live in my home and do contractor work for employment and have a home office. You are stating that simply because I rent out a separate space on this property I am not entitled to my normal home office deductions for my contractor work?
While this doesn't address my specific issue, it seems it is quite common to have a home office when you are self employed and still rent out a portion of your property. One really has nothing to do with the other as I am not deducting the home office as part of my rental scenario.