All Forum Posts by: Ivan M.

Why does Turbotax create TWO entries under "Your Property Assets" for the same property? This creates two line items for depreciation which "seems" incorrect. The one entry turbotax creates appears to be exactly what I come up with using an external depreciation calculator. The other line item is about about 500 dollars more in depreciation. One entry is labeled what I called it while the other entry is labeled Residential which Turbotax made up. The placed in service date is the same for both line items. 

Does anyone have any experience with this? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I would hate to have to turn this over to a CPA for this one lone issue. I posted on another thread that I thought i may have to amend last years return as that's where I now see this two line item depreciation issue while doing this years taxes Last year was first year it was rented too. Thanks!

Thanks Greg. I'm trying the turbo tax amend option now but when trying to open my saved file from last year...turbotax says "its too big"...wish it was referencing last year's refunded amount. HA! I'll keep digging for a bit, but may end up going with a tax professional. I am a do it yourself type though...probably similar to many real estate investor types....

Thank you very much for the quick reply Steven. Perhaps I could ask then one more question. What is the best way to amend a return? A little background info: I did my return with Turbotax online filing Federal, North and South Carolina. I live in South Carolina but the Rental is over the border in North Carolina. I'm guessing I'll need to amend the states as well. I have access to the last year's online account as well as a pdf and hardcopies of last years return too. Thank you for any guidance you may be able to offer.

Hi folks, I frequent the forums quite a bit but don't post a lot. Perhaps someone has a little experience with my question though: I have one rental house and do my own taxes (maybe I'll rethink that last part...we'll see). While doing this year's taxes I noticed that somehow I took almost two years worth of depreciation on my rental (last year) instead of the correct one year. I've had the rental for two years in total so this year (2014) I should take the 2nd year of depreciation. Not a clue how I didn't catch this last year. Nonetheless, should I amend my 2013 return or simply correct the depreciation on this year's (2014) return and not worry about it. Otherwise, everything else looks ok. Any thoughts from the fine folks out there?

All,

Thanks for the responses. I feel a little better with my plan. I can tell this is going to be a great resource for information. Thanks for taking the time to answer.

I'm not a high net worth individual (yet). Better than average salary work (less than 100k)..family guy. For a test...I may run the numbers with turbo tax myself and then hand over to CPA to see if/how much he better my situation.

Long story short..I have one rental (been renting it out for past 10 months) and it is fully paid for and I want to be legitimate with taxes, deductions, etc. I want to keep things as simple as possible, so I guess my questions are:

I don't have an LLC set up or a separate bank account. They write me a check and I deposit it in my primary bank account. Expenses are paid for out of my primary bank account or with my American Express card. I save the receipts and I have not yet had to deal with taxes, but will be soon enough.

Do I really need to set up an LLC for one rental property?

Anything I can do to my advantage tax wise / income wise vs. being a sole proprietor which I suppose is what I am at the moment?

Do I really need a separate bank account...with or without an LLC? I keep pretty good track of all my expenses with mint.com.

I have a million dollar umbrella policy through my homeowners insurance company. Do you think this is sufficient protection?

For tax time, can simply fill out the correct forms and claim the expenses have incurred thus far..won't turbo tax handle fairly easily? Do I really need an accountant...I hear they make up their fee in creative accounting....

What are examples of tax deductions that I may have not thought about that I could claim...I now have repairs, mileage, postage, some office supplies? What about property taxes, HOA dues, homeowners insurance on rental? Any other creative suggestions?

Should I have really issued a 1099 form to a moonlighting plumber I know that replaced a water heater...cost was 650.00? What are the ins and outs of this form?

Anything else you'd like to share for a guy who's simply trying to legally keep as much money in my account vs. the government's...and also basic ways to protect myself from liability issues with tenants?

What else am I missing?

Thank you all for any input you may have.

navifoto