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November 5, 2019
Question

Qualifying rental expense deductions

  • November 5, 2019
  • 2 replies
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I have a rental property and would like to convert a golf cart from personal use to 100% rental home use.  Is that legal and , if so, how do I calculate the value of this item for rental expense deduction purposes?

    2 replies

    Employee
    November 5, 2019

    @Golfer55 wrote:

    I have a rental property and would like to convert a golf cart from personal use to 100% rental home use.  Is that legal and , if so, how do I calculate the value of this item for rental expense deduction purposes?


    You can do this provided the golf cart is exclusively for the use of your renters. 

     

    Use the fair market value of the golf cart on the date you convert it to use in your rental activity.

     

    See https://www.irs.gov/publications/p527#en_US_2018_publink1000219151

    Carl11_2
    Employee
    November 5, 2019

    Understand that anything and everything listed in the assets/depreciation section must be something that is used to "produce income".  So if the golf cart is for the exclusive use of a renter, then no problem. It's cost is what you paid for it. The acquisition or purchase date is when you originally purchased the goft cart. Doesn't matter if it was 10 years ago. The "in service" date is the first day that golf cart was "available for rent", or available to the renter (weather it was used by the renter starting on that date or not, doesn't matter.)  The FMV of the cart is it's fair market value on the date you placed it in service. It's classified as "equipment" and gets depreciated over 5 years. Depreciation will be based on the *LESSER* of what you paid for it, or it's FMV when placed in service.

    More than likely this will have "NO IMPACT" on your tax liability and you're probably wasting your time with this. But that's just my opinion. Your real paperwork nightmare is going to be when you sell or otherwise dispose of the rental property and/or golf cart.