What date do I use as the acquired date for the basement that I rent out of my home that I live in?

[TinkerBell01]

I am confused as to what dates I should use on a couple of screens in TurboTax regarding my rental space in my home. I purchased my home in December of 1996. In 2015 I added a bathroom and closet in the basement to prepare it to rent it (there was already a bedroom and den). The bathroom and closet were completed on 10/25/15. I also bought a washer and dryer on 10/02/15 a refrigerator on 10/01/15 and a stove on 07/02/16 for my tenants to use in the workshop area. My renters actually moved in on 10/17/15. They moved out and I converted my basement to personal use on July 2, 2017. I want to make sure I am using the correct dates because I know that the assets stop depreciating when it is converted to personal use.

I am using TurboTax Premier. What dates do I use for the "Placed in Service Date" for the appliances - do I use the date I actually purchased them ( which is a few days before I actually rented for the first three appliances, or the date I actually started renting the basement and what date do I use for the basement rooms/improvement itself? Do I used the date the additions/improvements were completed or when the tenants started renting?

On the "Disposition Information" screen what date do I us for the "Date Acquired" for the basement rooms/improvemet? Is it the date I began renting it, or when the improvement/addition was actually completed, or the date I initially purchased my home since it already had two rooms in the basement when I bought the house? Likewise, what date do I use for the "Date Acquired" for the appliances on this screen? Is it the date I actually purchased them or the date I started renting to my tenants?

[PatriciaV · Accepted solution]

There are three dates that relate to any Rental Asset:

1. Purchase Date - the date you actually purchased/acquired the rental home, or a finished rental asset
2. In Service Date - the date the asset was available to be used for a rental purpose (not always the first date a renter used the asset)
3. Disposal Date - the date you stopped using the asset as a rental

Your home & basement have the same purchase date. The in-service date would be the first day your rental space was ready and available to be rented (or listed with an agent). The disposal date was either the date the last renter moved out or the date you decided to stop using it as a rental (whichever is later).

The renovations you made would have the same in-service and disposal dates as the basement. But the "date you acquired" would be different; this would be the date the renovations were complete.

The purchase dates for the appliances should be obvious. But the in-service date would be either the date the space was available to be rented, or the date the appliances were installed, whichever was later.

When reporting the disposition of all rental assets, you should only need to enter the date of disposition (stopped using it for rental). The purchase date should be brought over from the asset entries you made. Note that you will need to report the disposition for every Rental Asset you enter, indicating they were converted to personal use.