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mfh3849
Returning Member

Depreciation on rental property not calculated correctly. Shows as 27.5 years SL but amount is about $500 lower than it should be.?

 
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4 Replies

Depreciation on rental property not calculated correctly. Shows as 27.5 years SL but amount is about $500 lower than it should be.?

You need to provide more details, such as the placed-in-service date and basis for depreciation.

mfh3849
Returning Member

Depreciation on rental property not calculated correctly. Shows as 27.5 years SL but amount is about $500 lower than it should be.?

I added 2 houses to turbo tax for 2021. Both had in service dates of 01/01/2021.

 

The first house had a depreciable basis of $365,346 with no prior depreciation. Turbo Tax calculated the depreciation as $12,732 and it should be $13,285 (365,346 / 27.5).

 

Thesecond house had a depreciable basis of $340,311 with no prior depreciation. Turbo Tax calculated the depreciation as $11,859 and it should be $12,375 (340,311 / 27.5).

 

I reviewed all the TurboTax forms and they are correct and I even deleted and reentered the information but it still comes out wrong??? My accountant did it in her software and it came out correctly.

Carl
Level 15

Depreciation on rental property not calculated correctly. Shows as 27.5 years SL but amount is about $500 lower than it should be.?

Common reasons why you're figures are to low in TurboTax are because the user either did not read the small print, or more commonly the clarity needed was not provided in the small print (if present) on a particular screen.  Pay attention to "Days of Personal Use" as well as "Business use percentage". But check everything regardless.

Rental Property Dates & Numbers That Matter.

Date of Conversion - If this was your primary residence or 2nd home before, then this date is the day AFTER you moved out, or the date you decided to lease the property – whichever is later.
In Service Date - This is the date a renter "could" have moved in. Usually, this date is the day you put the FOR RENT sign in the front yard.
Number of days Rented - the day count for this starts from the first day a renter was contracted to move in, and/or "could" have moved in. That would be your "in service" date or after if you were asked for that. Vacant periods between renters do not count for actual days rented. Please see IRS Publication927 page 17 at https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p527.pdf#en_US_2020_publink1000219175 Read the “Example” in the third column.
Days of Personal Use - This number will be a big fat ZERO. Read the screen. It's asking for the number of days you lived in the property AFTER you converted it to a rental. I seriously doubt (though it is possible) that you lived in the house (or space, if renting a part of your home) as your primary residence, 2nd home, or any other personal use reasons after you converted it to a rental.
Business Use Percentage. 100%. I'll put that in words so there's no doubt I didn't make a typo here. One Hundred Percent. After you converted this property or space to rental use, it was one hundred percent business use. What you used it for prior to the date of conversion doesn't count.

Depreciation on rental property not calculated correctly. Shows as 27.5 years SL but amount is about $500 lower than it should be.?


@mfh3849 wrote:

I added 2 houses to turbo tax for 2021. Both had in service dates of 01/01/2021.


Absolutely, and you have to use the mid-month convention for both of those houses.

 

Depreciation starts at the midpoint of January, not the first of the month.

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