Help - rental real estate depreciation is driving me nuts!

Maybe you should go back to your professional preparer.

Either you made a 1031 exchange, or you sold the old property and bought new property -- NOT both. Which was it? Did you have control of the proceeds from the sale of your old property? If so, you don't qualify for 1031 treatment.

It should be since the acquistion cost of the new property is different from the sales price of the old property.

That depends. All else being equal, I'd go with the tax software but I can't be sure because of my unanswered questions.

"DenverAnon" wrote

The short answer is that it's exactly the same as last year.

But you need to know the long answer, which will depend on so many factors that can't be covered here.

Maybe you should ask your professional preparer for explaination. I am never amussed by preparers that simply "work their magic" and keep the taxpayer in the dark.

lighten up. the property was sold, in a manner which qualified for nonrecognition of gain under IRC 1031.

no kidding!

I am hoping someone familiar with my

what number is your tax software giving you? what input data did you give the software?

On Apr 8, 6:25 pm, "Gil Faver" > qualify for 1031 treatment.

And you know that because a person who doesn't know that depreciation goes up when tax basis goes up said so?

Do you have the depreciation schedule the tax service prepared last year? It should have the basis they were depreciating along with the ending accumulated depreciation.

1031 exchanges are complicated in their calculation of basis so I would go with the basis reported in the prior year if you can get it. They should provide you with the depreciation schedule.

With that, you should be depreciating residential rental property over

27.5 years.

It can be complicated because technically in an exchange you are supposed to depreciate the assets in layers. You calculate basis in the new asset by using book value of the old at date of exchange. You continue to depreciate the old asset on the books and depreciate the new layer from date of exchange. For that reason, I repeat that you go back to your old preparer and get the asset listing.

Based on the set of information he provided, and the fact that he had used a professional tax preparer during the period of the 1031 activity.

And based on the fact I have seen rants from people who seem to get off when someone says they "sold" a property and did a "1031 exchange".

move on to his real question, or allow others to do so.

On Apr 9, 11:49 am, "Gil Faver"

I know technical jargon all too well. I also know that when someone says he "sold" property, they may not be saying "I sold property and took control of the proceeds and thus did not qualify for 1031 treatment". So while raising the point is fine, going off on a diatribe (not you, others in the past) serves no purpose. Raising the point and then not addressing the issue in the likely event that the OP simply did not get the technical jargon perfectly correct also does not help the OP with his question, or others reading the thread now or in the future.

I have seen threads in the past where the OP is frustrated because the thread degenerated into a literary discussion, rather than stating the 1031 requirements and then addressing the issue. I cringe at the though of such threads recurring.

sorry. I'm done.

========================================= MODERATOR'S COMMENT:

- agreed, may be time to consider this thread closed