US Rental Property - Tax Questions!

[daverobev]

Ok, so I'm doing form 4562.

"Month and Year placed in service" - is that the date I bought the house, or the date it was rented? Bought in September, did some renovations, it was listed in Oct and tenants moved in at the start of Dec! This affects the depreciation..

*Edit* ok nevermind, it's October.

Thanks!

(There may well be more to come!)

Oh yeah - I just leave the other Parts blank, right? Part I, II, V don't seem relevant for one house..

Hey these instructions aren't all that bad (despite being 40000 pages long..)

[Letj]

I have placed several properties in service and I always use the day when it becomes available for rent, i.e. when the renovation is completed and advertised for rent.  I am not sure if this interpretation is correct but that's what I've done.

[daverobev]

I think that's right; it adds up with what I've found on various sites.

What about "Fair Rental Days" on Schedule E? Is that "days it was rented" or "days it was available to rent"... 0 for personal use.. I don't even think this question is relevant as I'm buying expressly for rental!

[Fireman]

In service date is the date you change the 'real property' from personal use to business use. 

As for fair rental days, this has to do with splitting a property between personal and business use.  For instance, in 2010, I used my rental for 10 months as my primary dwelling and the last 2 as a rental.  If you plan only to use it as a rental, then you would have no personal use. 

As I recall, the form also asks how many days it was rented at fair market value.  This would be the number of days it was occupied and generating income from a renter.

[daverobev]

Cheers!

Just posted the forms off. Hopefully I'm at least ballpark correct - there's no way I owe money, there's no way they owe me money - I think it's all ok. Phew.

Well, I guess I might've screwed up my depreciation stuff if I should've started depreciating from the day I bought it rather than the month it was all ship shape. Meh.

I also didn't fill in sections which would've been full of zeroes - some I did, some I didn't. Ah well, I guess I'll get arrested next time I cross the border if I did it all wrong!