We purchased this rental last year....It was my mother's house and we purchased it from the estate. prior to it being rented we spent over $25K on rehab because it had many issues that needed to be resolved prior to renting it out. I was told that Turbo Tax was the best for rental properties and so, though I have used HR Block the last couple of years I can back to turbo tax to see if that is the case.....I used to swear by Turbo Tax.....SO....how do I document my rental property expenses in Turbo Tax?....is it done like a business?
If the rental property is owned by you, and is not in the separate name of a business that is required to file a separate tax return, then the rental income and expense activity will be recorded on your personal tax return on Schedule E. This would require using an individual tax form version of TurboTax Premier or above.
TurboTax Business is only used to create tax returns for partnerships, multi-member LLCs, C Corporations, S Corporations or Trust/Estates
Therefore, assuming that the rental activity is to be reported on your personal return, below are the steps to be brought to the rental property section in TurboTax. TurboTax will walk you through entering the rental property as an asset (purchase price plus improvements for a cost basis), plus then give you opportunity to record the rental income and expenses.
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