If you converted your primary residence into a rental property during the tax year, you will need to manually allocate the home expenses between Schedule A (Form 1040) Itemized Deductions (personal) and Schedule E (Form 1040) Supplemental Income and Loss (rental) based on the portion of the year you used the home as a primary residence and the portion of the year the home was available for rent.

To enter the personal portion of the expenses into the TaxAct^® program:

1. From within your TaxAct return (Online or Desktop), click Federal. On smaller devices, click in the upper left-hand corner, then click Federal.
2. Click Itemized or Standard Deductions in the Federal Quick Q&A Topics menu to expand, then click the appropriate topic:
   • Taxes paid to enter property taxes.
   • Interest expenses to enter mortgage interest.
   • Casualty or theft losses to enter qualified casualty loss.
3. The program will proceed with the interview questions for you to enter or review the information that will be reported on Schedule A.

To enter your rental income and expenses into the TaxAct program:

1. From within your TaxAct return (Online or Desktop), click Federal. On smaller devices, click in the upper left-hand corner, then click Federal.
2. Click Rent or Royalty Income in the Federal Quick Q&A Topics menu to expand, then click Real estate rental income.
3. Click + Add Schedule E, Pg 1 to create a new copy of the form or click Edit to review a form already created.
4. Continue with the interview process to enter all of the appropriate information.

Additional Information

When going through the Rental Income section of the Federal Q&A, you will come across a screen titled Rental Income - Personal Use. As noted on this screen, if you converted a primary residence to a rental property during 2020, only enter personal usage while the unit is a rental. If you did not use the property for personal purposes at any time after the home was converted into a rental unit, you should not enter any days of personal use.

You will also want to be sure you enter the appropriate Date Placed in Service and Cost Basis for any assets you may be depreciating.

Please see "Property Changed to Rental Use" on page 16 of IRS Publication 527 Residential Rental Property for more information.

Note that any link in the information above is updated each year automatically and will take you to the most recent version of the document at the time it is accessed.