I'm renovating a multi-family building. I live in one of the units. I use my Jeep to pick up supplies from HD etc. B/c the units I'm renovating aren't being rented right now, I cannot expense my vehicle usage.
How do I reflect that usage on my taxes? Or is it not worth the trouble?
You live in one unit of your property, you must divide certain expenses between the part of the property used for rental purposes and the part of the property used for personal purposes, as though you actually had two separate pieces of property.
The expenses to remodel your rental property should be capitalized and depreciated rather than deducted all at once. You will include the mileage deduction for your vehicle as an expense to be included with the other remodel expenses. If this was the first year that you rented the property, and you remodeled the property before you made it available for rent, you will include the cost when you first enter the rental into TurboTax. After you enter your purchase price, you will see a screen: Any Property Improvements Made? and you would enter the cost there.
@Terri_G thanks.
It seems the easiest way is to use the IRS mileage rate calculation. So I just add that calculated Automobile expense to my basis for a new rental?