Rental depreciation

[Todork]

Why is TurboTax suddenly after many years asking for year of purchase, amount, land price and s.o. of rental properties? Where is rental depreciation from last year? 

[Mike9241]

it should have transferred when you started 2022. but for that to happen you need to be in the same account as you used in 2021.  once you start working on 2022, there is no way to transfer the 2021 data.

[anntax]

I am using a CD every year. I don’t remember having an account any of those years. I have never had any problems transferring data fro one year to the next. May be I don’t understand something?

[Todork]

Is the account needed when preparing online? I use CDs. 

[VolvoGirl]

Here's an idea.  Do you still have 2021 installed?  Try opening 2021 program and see if you can get your 2021 return to show up in it.  Go to FILE - OPEN.   Then save it again with a name and place you can find.  Go to File - Save As.  Then start a new 2022 return and transfer from the 2021 file.

[Todork]

I will try that. Thank you!

I had a pdf from last year which I thought will transfer to this year- as usual… but no…

[Todork]

I tried but it transferred only the personal information- name, address and s.o. Still no rental information.

[anntax]

I contacted TurboTax and was told to wait 24-48 hours for a glitch to be resolved. Will see how it goes.

[anntax]

nothing yet after 48 hours

[Carl]

Unless they changed something and haven't told us, you're wasting your time trying to import from a PDF. That only gives you the data under "My Info".  You need to import from the .tax2021 file.

If that's not possible, then you have all the data you need on the 2021 PDF, to re-enter it manually into the TTX 2022 program. (Been there, done that, got the T-shirt).

[anntax]

Thanks!

I will have to manually enter the data. I can’t see the accumulated depreciation from previous years on 2021 pdf. What form and where exactly would that be on?

[Carl]

If you have a single rental property, you may have a total of three sheets labeled as a "Form 4562". The one that prints in normal portrait format is the "official" form, and is the one that gets filed with the actual tax return. The portrait form is only generated if there is a change of some sort for the tax year being filed. For example, if you add an asset, sell an asset, convert an asset to personal use, etc. etc. etc.

The other two print in landscape format and are not *official* forms. But it's those two that will have the details being requested in this thread. The one you most likely need is titled "Depreciation and Amortization Report".  The other is titled "Alternative Minimum Tax Depreciation".  You only need that one if the program asks you for any AMT numbers.

If you use the one from the 2021 tax return, you have to add together the amounts in the "prior year deprec" column and "current year deprec" column. to get the total amount of prior year's depreciation taken, "BEFORE" 2022. It will not include the 2022 depreciation of course. This "unofficial" form will have more detail on it too, which you will definitely need, such as date placed in service, business use percentage, convention/method used for depreciation, and more.

When you enter this in TurboTax, the program will automatically figure the prior year's depreciation for you, based on the "in service" date you enter. So make sure that "in service" date is spot on correct.

[anntax]

Thanks again for the thorough answer! One question if you could answer. Last year there were no additional changes to the rental info so form 4562 was not produced as far as I can see. This tax year 2022 the form is created by TurboTax. Do you think IRS will be triggered somehow even though I didn’t have new changes or additional things to depreciate?

[JulieS · Accepted solution]

No, if you had any depreciation expenses, your depreciation details are included in your tax return even if Form 4562 was not required. 

The IRS is not "triggered" by changes in the forms included in your return. It is common for the forms you need to change from year to year. 

[lkng67]

It pulls from a special file in the original Turbo Tax folder. It took me a while to find it. I had started another return and wanted to start it again and it would not find a file. I had to locate it and move it into a folder where I could browse and access it when I got to the depreciation part.

Question, we only lived in the house 6 month and then did a 1031 exchange. Can you advise why it does not cut the depreciation in half?