Wrong allocation for part-year rental

[isskewl]

We rented out our primary residence for 308 days in 2023 (85%). TurboTax is only allocating 23% of our expenses instead of 85%. I have no idea why.

[AmyC]

You answered something wrong. You want to mark that during the time it was a rental, there were ZERO personal use days. You should be getting the full amount of the expenses while a rental.

[isskewl]

It was a rental for part of the year. TT asks how many personal days and how many rental days and I put in the correct answers. The only time period in question is the tax year 2023, during which it was not rented 100% of the time, hence the need to allocate expensed based on percentage. 

[MarilynG1]

In the Property Profile, enter the 'date placed in service'.   After that date, indicate 0 personal days.  TurboTax will calculate the correct % based on the service date.

The days prior to 'date placed in service' are automatically assumed to be personal and not counted and don't need to be entered.

@isskewl 

[isskewl]

Ok. I was originally encountering the issue online. I downloaded the desktop app yesterday and have started over from scratch. 

Per your instruction, how does that work with a mix of personal and rental use after the property is out into service. Less applicable last year but for 2024 we are mostly using our home for our person use but still renting it out for some periods. When I filed by hand, it was a simple percentage based on number of personal to rental days used to allocate things like mortgage interest and utilities. I'm not getting why TT asks the right questions about how many days were for person and how many for rental and then seems to invent an entirely arbitrary percentage. 

[isskewl]

Oh, dang. I think I just figured it out. My personal days included the 42 days in 2023 prior to putting it into service. Those shouldn't have counted, only the 15 days at the end of the year when we stopped renting upon our return from traveling. I had 308 rental days and 57 personal with it only being put into service February 12, so the total of rental and personal days are greater than the amount of days the property was in service, which somehow resulted in a broken calculation. User error tho.

[PaulaM]

Personal use days for a rental means the number of days you used the rental while it was a rental.  If you stopped using it as a rental and then occupied it, your personal use days are 0.