Schedule E Asset Entry Worksheet For Real Estate

[buch111111]

I am working on the final review. On the Asset Entry Worksheet for my income properties, it states: Type of asset must be entered. However, my only choices are 

M-Home Office

or

N-Home Office Improvement.

I have been using TTX for over 20 years. This asset has been on the depreciation schedule for 8 years now. I only caught it when I clicked on the form, from the view forms list. It stated "Not Done". So, I went in to check on this and line 5 was pink. I clicked it and the only options for the asset are as noted, M-Home Office, or, N-Home Office Improvement.

Obviously these two options don't apply. Where are the options for Real Property? The depreciation is for improvements done to real estate. I had previously, and successfully used the asset depreciation in previous years.

What's wrong?

Thanks!

[DanPaul02]

Bug in process of being fixed.  

[rjs]

This is a known bug that was just reported to TurboTax on Friday. It might have been introduced in the update that was released on Thursday. It is not caused by a defective CD, and replacing the CD will not fix the problem. TurboTax is investigating the problem.

[Xtermy]

An update has been released for TurboTax 2020, but it didn't solve this issue. It still prevents me from filing my taxes.

For me, it started for a different reason that for the OP. I had mistakenly answered "Yes" to the question of whether this property has been sold, disposed of, converted to personal use, etc. in 2020, in the depreciation section. However, even when I selected the "No" answer, and made sure that everything else went back to how it was before (including the exact and correct depreciation amount), this question regarding whether this property is a home office or a home office improvement still remains. I know that this is an internal TurboTax worksheet, and that it isn't filed with the official tax forms. However, I do assume that this is an important selection, and that it may have tax implication for when I might choose to eventually sell this property.

Therefore, short of building up my tax return file from the beginning (in order to hopefully get around this bug), do you know whether there an approximate date on which this will be fixed?

Thank you.

[rjs]

@Xtermy  TurboTax has not given a date for fixing the bug.

[DanPaul02]

@rjs  Is the bug also happening with the online version?

[Hwanandmichelle]

Yes I am using the online version, and I have the same issue. 

[Xtermy]

Got it, thanks. Not the best news. However, I have found a good workaround in the meantime, for anyone who might need it: Simply click on the "Edit" button on the relevant property, and then delete the depreciation section for it (make sure that you save any pertinent information before then, such as purchase price, purchase date, date of utilizing for rental purposes, prior years' depreciation, etc.). Then, simply click the "Add" button to go through the depreciation section anew. This will clear the error message about the home office selection, and will consequently allow you to file your taxes.

[buch111111]

So, I spent an hour and 1/2 with tech support. Nice enough people but they could not find nor fix the problem. It's a coding issue in the program. They said they would get back to me the next day, 8/9/21, but nada.

For filing purposes, I simply left the schedule as is. I ran error check and no other errors existed. I allowed the one schedule to remain with the incorrect answer in order to file. These schedules are for information purposes for the tax payer. Rather than wait for an indeterminate period for TTX, I went ahead and filed. 

I think TTX owes the people and this community BIG TIME (I know I do).  There is no excuse for this kind of sloppy coding. PERIOD!

Thank you to  RJS.

[Xtermy]

I agree with everything you wrote. It is true that this Asset Worksheet is part of the internal worksheets that don't get sent to the IRS with your official tax return.

However, at least for me on the desktop version of TurboTax 2020 Premier Edition, choosing to ignore any errors will not allow me to eventually file the tax return. The program does allow you to choose to skip the error validation and correction process, but once you are in the very last screen (where you click a button to transmit the tax return) the program will once again remind you about this and any other errors, and won't allow you to file before you fix all of them. It's true that you can just choose an incorrect value on that internal worksheet, but I worry that it might affect something in the future, such as if I choose to sell the rental property.

However, my workaround of just deleting the depreciation section and redoing it (while first writing down the property's characteristics) does seem to be working. This, by the way, seems to be a common solution to many issues in TurboTax, where deleting and redoing a certain section often gets rid of problems, whereas trying to simply editing that section won't clear the problem.

[rjs]

---

@Xtermy wrote:

do you know whether there an approximate date on which this will be fixed?

---

@Xtermy  The forum moderator has just told us that they expect to have this bug fixed in an update "sometime next week." That would be the week of August 23 - 27.

Updates seem to usually be released on Thursdays, but that can vary.

[Xtermy]

Thank you very much for this update, rjs.

[savetacks4me]

Let me add that this is a more general Asset Entry issue. I see the same Type error in the Home & Business edition for both Schedule A and Schedule C. I presume that the TTax bug fix will be general.

FYI: This bug may not have existed on the original version on my CD. I had created Schedule A Asset Entry forms with Type "A Computer". This designation persisted on my worksheet, but was in red and "Marked Estimated". If I try to change it, however, the only choices are the Home Office ones.

[buch111111]

This error was not on the original CD. It happened when it did an automatic update.

[buch111111]

The program does allow you to choose to skip the error validation and correction process, but once you are in the very last screen (where you click a button to transmit the tax return) the program will once again remind you about this and any other errors, and won't allow you to file before you fix all of them.

The reason I did this was, I didn't want to delete all my schedules. I had only changed one schedule when I noticed the first error. I did not go further on the other schedules because it would have created more errors. I stopped working on it until after my original post here, and speaking with TTX support. So, to work around the error, I changed the answer for the asset type (on the first and only schedule that had the error) to one of the two choices that TTX would allow. That fixed the error from the "error check" standpoint and allowed me to file my returns.

The other schedules still say "Not Done", but I'm not touching them until the bug is fixed. In other words, if your schedules were previously done before the update (like mine were), you won't have the problem unless you click on the schedule.

I am also using the desktop version.

Hope this helps.

Best