Was property rented all year question in TurboTax

[burgerguy14]

I had a tenant from 2018 - 2020 in a small multi-family in NYC.  He left at the end of 2020 b/c NYC rents had dropped so low that he could get his dream apartment in Greenwich Village for 60% of the normal asking rent.

I did some repairs to his apartment and posted it for rent.  I was not able to rent the apartment all year 2021.  My broker advised me not to drop the price to meet the market demand b/c I would attract the type of tenant that will not pay nor will they leave.

I answered the question as follows.

1. No the property was not rented out all year

2. Zero days rented at fair rental price.

Is this correct?

[Critter-3]

I answered the question as follows.

1. No the property was not rented out all year   correct 

2. Zero days rented at fair rental price.  to keep the rental in the TT system  then you must enter 1 day of rent to keep the depreciation going and be able to enter the expenses on the Sch E ( since it was available for rent even though you got no renters/rent) . 

[burgerguy14]

"Zero days rented"  ***kept *** the depreciation going for me.

[Critter-3]

Then they upgraded the program since I worked it last ... in the past entering zero rental days used to delete the entire Sch E including the depreciations tables ... check the return carefully.  

[Carl]

Unless they updated the program (I think they have) if you enter zero days rented, the program will "force" you to delete the SCH E. If that happens, you'll get a pop-up warning before it actually deletes it. Just cancel out of the warning and enter 1 day rented. The fact you have zero income for that one day will be fine.

Assuming you did not live in the property for one single day during the year as your primary residence, 2nd home, vacation home or any other "personal" type of use, you still enter zero for personal use days. ANything else, and it will change your depreciation and reduce the amount of other deductions you are allowed to claim.