TurboTax Business Calculating Depreciation Expense for Rental Real Estate with Personal Use

[95461]

I am struggling to have TurboTax Business correctly calcuate my Depreciation Expense for my Rental Real Estate property because TurboTax Business's logic does not appear to accept different business use percentages across different years.  The problem with TurboTax Busines is that there is only one place to enter % business use which it then applies to all years that the asset has been in use.  Based on reading other posts in the Community it seems that other TurboTax products ask about a % business use in a specific year.  How do I accurately report my depreciation expense for the current year when the % business use is lower than previous years?

Here is a simple example of the issue:

I purchased and used the property for 100% business use in year 1.  In year 2, I used the property for personal use for some of the year (30%) and rented it for the rest of the year (70%).  Below are the depreciation calculations.

Depreciable Amount: $275,000

Useful life: 27.5 Years

Straight Line Depreciation Expense should be $10,000 each year at 100% Business Use.

Year 1: Asset purchased Jan 1, 2021. 100% business use.  I depreciated $9,583 in accordance with IRS rules on Mid Month convention: (3.485% * $275,000 = $9,583)

Year 2 (current year): 70% business use. Depreciation Expense should be $7,000 (70% of $10,000)

In TurboTax Business I entered 70% as the business use percentage and $9,583 as all prior year depreciation.  However, by entering 70% as the business use percentage, the program thinks that it was 70% in all previous years and that Year 1's Depreciation should have been $6,708 instead of $9,583.  Thus, it is computing this years's depreciation expense for Year 2 as $6,892 because it wants to adjusts all future depreciation expenses by the excess it thinks I took in year 1:

(6,708-9,583)/26.5 years = -$108.

$7,000-$108 = $6,892.  

This screenshot shows that Turbo Tax Business only gives one place to enter % business use and does not tie it to a specific year.

[Anonymous_ · Accepted solution]

Manual adjustments are required even in the personal income tax preparation products,

[95461]

I am using Turbo Tax Business, not Turbo Tax Home and Business. The solution you provide is not available in Turbo Tax Business, but I believe that it should be and would solve the problem.

[Anonymous_]

No, even the individual income tax preparation products do not support business use that varies from year to year.

See https://digitalasset.intuit.com/DOCUMENT/A2ETBITdw/122122-2022-unsupported-calcs-L1FQfTTgn.pdf

[95461]

How do you recommend I solve the problem? The only way to get the program to calculate the correct depreciation expense for the current year is to inaccurately state the amount of depreciation in all prior years.  However, this would create an inaccurate Depreciation and Amortization Report (Form 4562).  

[Anonymous_]

You are simply going to have to do something that is not at all simple, which is to calculate each year's depreciation manually.

[95461]

I have no problem calculating and tracking each year's depreciation manually. I am having an issue figuring out how to get Turbo Tax Business to accept my manually calculated depreciation expense. In other words, where do I enter my manually calculated value?  How do I override Turbo Tax's calculation of depreciation expense?  Even in the "Forms" view I cannot enter my value.

[Anonymous_]

Look for your Federal Asset Entry Worksheet which is usually directly below your 8825 Worksheet.

[95461]

I figured it out. 

Go to the Forms view.  Find and select the cell that needs to be adjusted.  Then click Edit -> Override.  Enter the amount you calculated manually.  

[Anonymous_]

Correct, and note that any hard overrides may impede the ability to e-file the return.