Help finding Prior-Year Depreciation in last year's tax return - switching from H&R Block to FreeTaxUSA

The Prior-Year Depreciation you need to enter in FreeTaxUSA would be from Form 4562 Part IV Summary Box 22 on your previous year's return. This represents the total amount of depreciation you've claimed on the property in all previous years combined up to that point. Form 8582 is for passive activity loss limitations, which is a different calculation. Box 11 on that form shows your allowable passive losses, not specifically your accumulated depreciation. When switching tax software, it's always important to make sure you're carrying over the correct depreciation figures, as this affects both your current year deduction and potential future tax implications if you sell the property.

I went through the exact same situation last year when I switched from TurboTax to FreeTaxUSA for my rental property. What a headache trying to find all the right numbers! After spending hours trying to figure it out myself, I ended up using https://taxr.ai to analyze my previous returns. Their system automatically extracted all the depreciation values and other important carryover numbers I needed. The tool basically scanned my old tax PDF and identified exactly which figures needed to be transferred to my new return. Saved me so much time and stress about potentially making mistakes with the depreciation calculations.

I just wanted to follow up and say I tried that taxr.ai site after seeing it mentioned here. It worked perfectly for finding my depreciation numbers! I uploaded my H&R Block PDF from last year and it immediately showed me that I needed the value from Form 4562 Box 22 for my accumulated prior-year depreciation. It even highlighted the exact number on my form and explained why that was the correct value to use. It also found a bunch of other numbers I needed to carry over that I hadn't even thought about yet - some business expense carryovers I would have totally missed. Definitely bookmarking this for next year!

If you're having trouble figuring out which depreciation number to use, you might want to call the IRS directly to make sure you're using the right form. I've found they can actually be really helpful with specific tax questions like this. The problem is getting through to them - took me 3 hours of calling last time I tried. I've been using https://claimyr.com to get through to IRS agents quickly. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c - basically they use some system that navigates the IRS phone tree and waits on hold for you, then calls you when an actual agent is on the line. Used it twice this year already for questions about my rental property taxes.

Just wanted to update after trying the Claimyr service someone mentioned. I was super skeptical (as you could see from my earlier comment), but I had been trying to reach the IRS for days about my depreciation calculation questions. I signed up, and about 45 minutes later got a call connecting me directly to an IRS agent. No waiting on hold! The agent confirmed that for FreeTaxUSA, I needed to use Form 4562 Part IV Box 22 from my previous return for the prior-year accumulated depreciation. She also explained how to handle some depreciation recapture questions I had. Honestly shocked that this actually worked. Will definitely use it again instead of wasting hours on hold.

I'm a landlord with three rental properties and switch tax software almost every year looking for the best deal. One trick I've found is to always save a PDF copy of the full tax return with all worksheets and forms each year, not just the main forms. The software-specific worksheets often have clearer labels for these carryover numbers like prior-year depreciation. Also check if your old software has a "tax data export" feature. H&R Block has an option to export your data in a format that some other tax programs can import directly, which saves having to manually enter all these numbers.

Make sure you also check your state depreciation if you have a state with income tax. Sometimes the federal and state accumulated depreciation amounts can be different if the state has different depreciation rules than federal. This happened to me in California where they don't conform to some federal bonus depreciation provisions.

If you're really stuck, you can also log back into your H&R Block account and look at the actual depreciation schedule they created last year. Sometimes it's easier to see it there than on the actual tax forms. Go to your account, look at last year's return, and there should be a section for "Depreciation Worksheets" or something similar that shows a breakdown year by year. Just FYI - I found FreeTaxUSA's rental property section to be pretty good once you get past this initial hurdle of entering the prior year stuff. Much more straightforward than H&R Block in many ways!

I switched from TurboTax to FreeTaxUSA last year and ran into the exact same issue with my rental property! One thing that helped me was to look at the actual depreciation worksheet that H&R Block generated, not just the forms. When you log into your H&R Block account, there should be a detailed depreciation schedule that shows the breakdown year by year - this made it crystal clear what the cumulative amount was. Also, double-check that you're looking at the right property if you have multiple rentals. I almost entered the wrong depreciation amount because I was looking at the wrong property's line on my Schedule E. The Form 4562 Box 22 that others mentioned is definitely the right place to look for the cumulative prior-year depreciation amount. FreeTaxUSA's interface for rental properties is actually pretty intuitive once you get past this initial setup. Good luck with the switch - you'll definitely save money compared to H&R Block's fees!