Depreciation from previous years

[hung3]

Last year I started a small business - I bought equipment that I listed as assets to depreciate - looks like 5 years, and elected to take a portion of the value as a deduction in 2021.

This left me with a portion of the equipments' value as an asset to depreciate.
However, I'm not sure how to claim the depreciation this year. It should be 1/5th of the value that was given last year, since it was a straight-line depreciation.

[ThomasM125 · Accepted solution]

Once you enter the equipment in TurboTax and list the cost and date put into service, TurboTax will calculate the depreciation for the year entered and the following years automatically. 

If you didn't use TurboTax last year, you need to enter the asset when you enter your business expenses, in the Business Assets section, and then Assets being depreciated. You will be asked to enter the amount of any special or bonus depreciation taken when you first entered the asset, also the cost and date put into service. TurboTax will calculate the depreciation for the current and following years based on what you entered.

[hung3]

So when I tried this year, I don't think it was able to find my return from last year (I guess if you use the downloaded TurboTax program it doesn't work?)

So that means I'll need to manually go in and fill out the depreciation for all my stuff from last year?

[RobertB4444]

If you used the downloaded program from last year then your tax file is stored on the same computer that you used it on.  If you download the software for this year onto that computer it will roll over the tax return from last year.  If you switch to the online version you can still roll over last year's file but only on that computer.  

Here's some more information on rolling over last year's return.

@hung3 

[hung3]

Oh so it has to be on the same computer? If I can find the tax file, can I use that on a new computer?

We did it on a different computer, because unfortunately that one can't use the 2022 version (it's an old computer)

[AnnetteB6]

Yes, if you find your 2021 TurboTax .tax file, you can make a copy of it and move it to the new computer.  Then the 2022 program can find it and import the information to your 2022 return to get started.

@hung3 

[hung3]

Thank you all for your help!

I started doing it manually under Assets and Depreciation or something, until the import using the tax2021 file - I grabbed that and it imported everything and it automatically did the depreciation for me.