Depreciation on REntal property in US does not seem correct

[pcoatsfamily]

I have been using Turboa Tax Premier for the last 7 years, up to 2023 tax year.  I switched to a Tax preparer for 2024, but entered my data into TurboTax in 2024 just to see how they compare.  I see that TurboTAx appears to be doing a incorrect calculation on the Rental Depreciation of my home in California, and it is different than what my tax accountant used.  

Asset Worksheet in TT 2024:

Date Placed in Service: 1/1/2017

Type of Asset: I - Residential rental

Cost of Asset: $243,000

Amount of land in cost: $72,900

Depreciable basis: $170,100

Recovery Period: 27.5

Perc Bus use:  100%

Dep Type: MACRS

Asset Class: R

Dep Method: SL

Amt Dep deduction: $6,537.  ???

If I divide 170,100 / 27.5 it is $6,185 (Which is what my Tax accountant had)

All the other questions on the worksheet are No/N/A.  

I see other incorrect calculations o[n otehr Assets I had for 27.5 years.

[M-MTax]

Hi,

You have to ensure that the program has the correct amount of PRIOR DEPRECIATION or else your figures will be off.

For example, I get $6,185 with your placed-in-service date and your basis on my test file. Note that I have $43,040 for prior depreciation after I input the placed-in-service date of 1/1/2017 and the basis of $170,100. If you're getting a different result, the prior depreciation is the first thing to check.

[pcoatsfamily]

Thanks!  Prior depreciation on the home being used by TT is $35,825 (It is an airbnb rental and it was not always rented out for the whole year).  How does the calculation work taking into account the prior depreciation?  If I reduce the basis by the $35,825, my remaining (adjusted?) basis is $134,275.  I have tried dividing that by several different amounts, nothing gives me the amount Turbo Tax is using : $6,537:

20.5:  (27.5-6) (6: prior years in service): $6,550

21.5:  $6,245.35

20: (27.5-7.5) (first year is .5?): $6,713

Note: Turbotax has the year of depreciation as 8

My tax accountant just used the Total basis/27.5, was she incorrect?  Is there an IRS document/section that defines how the prior depreciation is used and how it impacts current depreciation?

[M-MTax]

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@pcoatsfamily wrote:

Prior depreciation on the home being used by TT is $35,825 (It is an airbnb rental and it was not always rented out for the whole year).  How does the calculation work taking into account the prior depreciation? 

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Sorry, but the TurboTax calculation is simply not going to work if prior depreciation was not consistent. The program just can't handle that scenario (there are others it can't handle either). You can enter the correct figure in forms view, I believe.

If the program returns a prior depreciation figure of $43,040, then the program calculation for the current year will be correct. If not, it will be off. That's just the way the program seems to work.

Re your tax accountant, there's no way I can determine whether or not she made an error based only on the facts you provided. I can say that if there was no personal use of the home and it was available for rental use all year, every year, then the depreciation deduction should have been higher, and the accumulated depreciation should have been $43,040 (or very close).

[pcoatsfamily]

It is very frustrating that turbo-tax cannot manage this correctly.  The program should tell me to calculate myself, or at least use the straight line depreciation that my accountant did if there truly is no IRS rule on how this should be calculated.  Usaing the straight line method based on the original basis seems like the most logical thing to do. 

There we're several other discrepancies and major issues in my previous tax year filings using TurboTAx regarding my 529 withdrawals.  I had to Amend 4 years worth of returns because I was paying taxes on my qualified 529 withdrawals.  

[M-MTax]

I agree that the 529 withdrawal section(s) need work since they usually need to be matched to a 1098-T (or other tuition payments) which sometimes doesn't seem to happen automatically in the program.

Section 280A would be applicable to your rental scenario since the rental is, and was, used for personal purposes. As a result, allowable depreciation deductions would vary from year to year.