Allocating vehicle expenses

[Mark Forest]

Filing out my taxes is getting complicated. Thank you to all of you who have been helping me especially Steven. As I have already posted I have three rental properties I acquired in 2012, and one I have had for three years. That makes four rental properties I owned in 2012. Of the three I acquired in 2012 only one of them was rented out in 2012. Thus I cannot take depreciation on the other two for 2012.

My question is about vehicle expenses. I drove over 10,000 miles in 2012 to the various rental properties including those I am not taking any depreciation for in 2012. Turbo Tax figures out vehicle expenses per mile, but don’t I have to capitalize these expenses? Do I only take the vehicle expenses for the one rental property I acquired and rented out in 2012? This is very confusing!

Yes it would have made it easier if I had some kind of “property manager” entity, but I am a sole propieetor and own all houses individually.

[Steven Hamilton II]

Steve Might,

You need to apportion the miles between before it was placed in service and after. the program doesn't do that. That is why you should invest in an accountant. That could be a costly mistake in an audit.

-Steven