If I am entering rental information (Schedule E) and deduct a portion of morgage interest and taxes for my property, do I need to update those deductions in schedule A?

[jdburdick1993]

I bought a home for my personal residence this year and rented out one room to a friend at fair market rate the entire time I've lived in the home. I'm following instructions for deducting a proportion of my mortgage interest and property taxes in schedule E (based on rental percentage of 33%, renting one out of three rooms), but I have also deducted the full mortgage interest and property tax amounts in schedule A. Turbo tax is not adjusting schedule A deductions based on anything I'm entering in schedule E. Is this correct? The current set up gives me a better return, but I'm concerned that I'm 'double counting' deductions for mortage interest and taxes as they are occuring in more than one place.

[AnnetteB6]

Yes, you are double counting the mortgage interest and property tax deductions on Schedule A.  Adjust the amounts reported on Schedule A so that you are only claiming the total amount paid when you add the Schedule A and Schedule E deductions together.  

Also, as you go through the Schedule A to make the adjustments, pay close attention to the information on screen.  It may turn out that the personal portion of the deductions has already been brought over from the Schedule E and you just need to delete the Schedule A entry that you made.

[jdburdick1993]

If the total deduction is the same can I just keep it all on schedule A and not bother about deducing a portion in schedule E?

[AmyC]

No, the rental portion must be on Sch E and the remainder on Sch A - even though it adds up to the same number. The rules are meant to be followed. In the rental property section, you either chose for the program to do the math or you. If you chose  the program, it already carried the information to sch A. If you chose to do the math, you have to do all of it - Sch E and Sch A.