Second Home

[Ct1121]

I get an error regarding my second home telling me to complete a schedule E for a rental.  My second home has never been a rental. I completed the property tax and interest portion for my deductions. I've used TurboTax for several years and this is the first time I get this error with the fix consisting of completing Scheule E.  I can't complete my taxes with this error since my second home is not a rental.  What do I need to do to correct the software error?

[DoninGA]

You should have reported the mortgage interest and property taxes paid for the second home in the Deductions & Credits section under Your Home and on Mortgage Interest, Refinancing and Insurance

At no time should have ever selected Rentals and Royalty Properties in the Wages & Income section.

If you are using the TurboTax desktop CD/Download editions, click on Forms.  When in Forms mode see if there is a Schedule E listed on the left side of the screen.  If so, click the schedule to open and delete the schedule by clicking on Delete Form at the bottom of the screen.

[MonikaK1]

Return to the Deductions and Credits section of TurboTax and review your entries for the mortgage interest and property tax on the second home.

In the mortgage interest section, at the screen that displays the question, "What kind of property is this loan for?", be sure to click on the button next to "Second home". If you inadvertently selected "Other", which is for business and rental properties, this could lead to a prompt to complete Schedule E.

See this TurboTax tips article for more tax information on second homes.

@Ct1121

[boltar23]

I'm having the same problem as the original poster. I did select "Second home" but it always says 

"Days rented must be greater than or equal to 15. If the number of days rented is less than 15, the income and expenses should not be reported on this schedule." 

There's no way for me to delete this form. I even went back and deleted all of the 1098 information about this property, but it STILL flags it and somehow remembers the property address.

I think the problem might be that for the first property I entered, I selected it as my second home. Then the second entry I put in, I selected it as my primary. Anyways, I can't seem to get rid of this error. 

[JulieS]

Yes, once the program starts a Schedule E for you, you have to delete it to get rid of this error. If you have a rental property in addition to your second home, just delete the Schedule E Worksheet that has the second home address in parentheses. 

This is how to delete the form:

1. Open your return and scroll down to Tax Tools on the bottom of the left side menu.
2. Select Tools.
3. Click on Delete a form (third on the list at the bottom of the screen).
4. Find Schedule E, p1 (Schedule E, Copy 1), or if you have a rental property too, Schedule E Worksheet (second home address) on the list of forms.
5. Click Delete to the right.
6. Confirm your Delete.
7. Click Continue in the lower right. 
8. Click Continue with my return.
9. Click Review and Continue to confirm the error is gone. 

[SGraue]

This worked perfectly for me. I had the exact same problem.

Thanks bunches.