Does turbotax do the math for expenses, if I rented a home for part of the year

[vinodr777]

Edit: I put this question in the right category: https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/investments-and-rental-properties/discussion/does-turbotax-do-the-...

[JohnB5677]

Yes, TurboTax can do many calculations, but proceed with caution in the first year.

Yes, this category is fine.

In the posting you referred to above Does TurboTax do the math for expenses  @Carl did an excellent job of answering the question.

To summarize:

TurboTax will only do "some" of the math if  you select the option to have the program do it for you.

• If you elect to have the program do it for you, it will  "correctly" figure mortgage interest and property taxes. 
• It can not pro-rate the property insurance. 
  • This is because the insurance for the portion of time it was personal use is not deductible anywhere on your tax return. 
  • You would still have to do the math yourself.
• Other things like heat and electricity would also have to be done by you.
• If the property will be a rental for years to come, you only need to do this the first year.  

You may wish to select the option to do it yourself that first year.

Here are some expenses and the recommended calculation.

• The program will figure the first year depreciation automatically, regardless of what you chose, based on the date you placed the property in service.
• You manually figure the interest deduction yourself based on how many days out of 365 days the property was in service. The difference is a SCH A itemized deduction.
• You manually figure the property taxes deductible on SCH E the same way you figured interest deduction on SCH E. The difference is a SCH A itemized deduction.
• You manually figure your property insurance, heat, electric deduction same way as above. However, the difference is "not" deductible on SCH A or anywhere else on your tax return.

For all other rental expenses, you claim the full amount incurred starting from the date the property was placed in service, until the end of the year. 

There is no pro-rating these expenses.  

[Carl]

You manually figure your property insurance, heat, electric deduction same way as above. However, the difference is "not" deductible on SCH A or anywhere else on your tax return.

Actually, that's not totally correct. The above statement is correct only for insurance.

Utilities, which includes heat and electricity, are fully deductible on SCH E from the time you placed the property in service. For example, since you receive your electric bill monthly, if you placed the property in service on July 1st, then you claim your electric bills in full for the period July-Dec. There is no "averaging" out utilities out the entire year.
Typically, when you rent out a property the tenant is responsible for utilities and has them transferred or turned on in their name. So it's not common for the landlord to have any utility expenses beyond the date the property is placed in service, and the date the tenant is contracted to move in.

The only time I have utility expenses is between renters. That's because I don't have the vacating tenant turn off the utilities. Instead, I transfer the utilities into my name. Then the new tenant transfers to their name on or before the contracted move in date. I generally only have one month's worth of utilities to deduct in this sceanario.