Rental expenses in Tax Act when renting for only part of the year

[Lura_SOAR]

I rented out my townhouse beginning in May of 2015.  For tax purposes, I can include the HOA fee as an expense.  In TaxAct, I am not sure whether to report the HOA fee for the period May-December or for the whole year.  I cannot tell if TaxAct is prorating all my expenses, and therefore, whether I should include the HOA fee for the whole year or part of the year.  Does anyone know the answer?

[Drifterrider]

I don't know the answer but I'd do the pro rata myself and just input that.  If that number makes it to the schedule E, then the software isn't changing it.

I would think you could only expense the HOA fee from the time your unit was available for rent.

[Lura_SOAR]

In case anyone is curious or has a similar question, I did figure out how TaxAct is calculating expenses.  If you only rented out your house for part of the year, they prorate all expenses.  So in my case, I rented out the townhouse for 2/3 of 2015.  I initially put the HOAs fees for May-December into the expenses in TaxAct.  But they are prorating that number by 2/3.  In order for the appropriate expense to be recorded, I needed to use the total amount of HOA fees for all of 2015, and then TaxAct multiplied that number 2/3 to get to the correct May-Dec amount.

[Drifterrider]

And now we all know :)