I have a rental house managed by a hired company. I don't spend 750 hours a year or more than 50 % of my time to manage it. Can I still deduct maintenance +other expenses

[DianeC958]

Yes, you can deduct maintenance and other expenses on your rental property.

If you actively participate in a rental real estate activity, you can deduct up to $25,000 of your rental loss even though it’s passive. To actively participate means that you:

• own at least 10% of the property, and
• make major management decisions, such as approving new tenants, setting rental terms, approving improvements and so forth. (No, you don't have to mow the lawn or answer middle-of-the-night phone calls from tenants about a backed-up toilet.)

You want to report the expenses even if they are not deductible in the current year due to income limitations so the expenses will carryforward and be deductible when you sell the property.

Real Estate Tax and Rental Property

[Carl]

I have a rental house managed by a hired company. I don't spend 750 hours a year or more than 50 % of my time to manage it.

Doesn't matter. The rule is not that you personally have to spend more than 750 hours managing it. If you pay a third party to manage the property for you, and you can show that you paid for more than 750 hours of their time to manage your property during the tax year (which I seriously doubt you can) then you claim what you pay for.

I would assume the rental manager charges you the standard 10% of the rental income as their management fee. If the rental company includes the "TOTAL" rent in box 1 of the 1099-MISC they sent you, then you can deduct that management fee in the rental expenses section. There's a box in that section specifically and explicitly for management cost.

If box 1 of the 1099-MISC shows what they paid you AFTER taking their management fee out, then you can NOT deduct the management fee on the SCH E.

If you paid for any rental expenses in excess of the management fee and the management company with held it from your "normal" monthly payment, then your ability to claim it depends.

If they included the with held amount in box 1 of the 1099-MISC, then you can claim it. If they did "NOT" include the with held amount in box 1 of the 1099-MISC then you can NOT claim it.

[basemaz]

The reason I'm asking this is that I use TurboTax Deluxe to prepare my taxes. In 2018, I was able to enter expenses like advertising and management fees. However, in 2019, it didn't ask me any question about expenses. This is passive income. I just pay the property management company to rent out my house. Does that mean I have to buy the upgrade to Premiere? 

[VictorW9]

Yes, for you to be able to deduct rental expenses and maintenance costs, you may have to upgrade to TurboTax Premier and prepare schedule E for your rental.