Expenses deduction when not able to rent?

Because of COVID, I was unable to rent my Florida residence this past summer which I normally do. It was listed for rental, but no takers. Can I still deduct the condo management fee and other expenses for the 6 months I normally have it rented out, despite having no rental income?

posted

So long as you were actively trying to rent out the property, your situation does not change anything tax-wise for you. The fact that rental income for 2020 may be zero doesn't matter. You still report on SCH E with nothing special to do here. The only thing is, none of your expenses will be deductible because you have no rental income to deduct them from. No big deal. They just get carried forward to the next year. Besides, if you have a mortgage on the property and have been renting for several years, more than likely you've never shown a taxable gain on paper, on the SCH E anyway. (It's not common for residential rental property with a mortgage on it to show a gain.)