Author Topic: Tax Q.O.D. - Renting out bedrooms / converting to full rental  (Read 1528 times)

neo von retorch

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Tax Q.O.D. - Renting out bedrooms / converting to full rental
« on: January 23, 2015, 08:18:03 AM »
Purchased house in 2007
Rented out bedrooms to friends
Starting in 2014 rented out using Craigslist ads
In September 2014 moved out and rented out the final room

So my Tax Question Of the Day (Q.O.D.) is...
 - how do I split land/house value, and can I depreciate the home purchase? (FreeTaxUSA seemed to indicate that I can't?)
 - should I worry about the renting I did before September to my friend or just treat this as a new rental situation when I moved out?
 - is there better software than others for this kind of situation? (FreeTaxUSA was suggested elsewhere and seems to support it but maybe doesn't "baby" me enough)
 - assuming it's 100% rental property as of 9/12/2014 (it is!) I can deduct all utilities/internet paid at that location, yes?

I believe the rest should be pretty straight forward... three jobs, lots of rollovers and some early 2014 investment gains/losses. Plus Betterment tells me it did some Tax Loss Harvesting. In any of these cases, I should be mailed or provided digital downloads of the forms I need to enter and software should do its magic. But so far I haven't been able to demystify depreciation and am unclear about the rest of the personal/rental property delineation.

Thanks in advance if you have the time and inclination to help me learn and "do my own taxes" (albeit with much help from strangers and software).