Need help with rental property tax values - TurboTax asking for land vs improvement value but only have total market value!
Title: Need help with rental property tax values - TurboTax asking for land vs improvement value but only have total market value! 1 I'm freaking out a bit because I'm doing taxes for my rental property for the first time and I'm stuck. TurboTax keeps asking me to separate the land value from the improvement value, but my tax bill only shows the taxable market value ($285,500) and assessed value ($142,750). I've been through every document I have - closing papers, mortgage docs, the appraisal report - and checked the county property tax website multiple times. Nothing specifically breaks out the land vs building values anywhere! I bought this duplex last March and have been renting out the other unit while living in one side. Had no idea this would be such a headache at tax time. If I can't find these specific values, what should I put in TurboTax? Can I just make an educated guess? Will the IRS come after me if I split the values incorrectly? Has anyone else run into this issue with rental property depreciation? Any help would be seriously appreciated!
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A Man D Mortal
7 This is a common issue for new rental property owners! The reason TurboTax is asking for this breakdown is because you can only depreciate the improvement value (building) on your taxes, not the land. If your tax documents don't specifically break this out, there are a few ways to handle it: 1) Call your county assessor's office directly. They typically have this information even if it's not displayed on your online tax bill or assessment. 2) Check your homeowner's insurance policy - it often lists the replacement value of just the structure, which can give you a starting point. 3) Use a reasonable estimate based on your area. A common rule of thumb is that land value is about 20-30% of the total property value in many residential areas, though this varies significantly by location. Don't stress too much - as long as you use a reasonable method to determine the split and document how you came up with it, you'll be fine. The IRS understands that taxpayers sometimes need to make reasonable estimates when exact figures aren't available.
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A Man D Mortal
•4 Thanks for this info! Would it be okay to just do a 25% land / 75% improvement split if I can't get the exact numbers? My property is in a suburban area about 20 minutes from downtown. Also, if I call the assessor's office, what exactly should I ask for?
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A Man D Mortal
•7 Using a 25/75 split in a suburban area is generally reasonable if you can't get exact figures. Document your reasoning somewhere in case of questions later. When calling the assessor's office, simply explain you need the breakdown between land and improvement values for your property for tax purposes. Have your parcel number or property address ready. They deal with this question frequently and should be able to provide those values immediately or direct you to where you can find them.
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A Man D Mortal
12 After struggling with the exact same issue last year, I discovered taxr.ai and it literally saved me hours of frustration! I also had a rental property where I couldn't find the land vs. improvement value breakdown, and I was about ready to pull my hair out dealing with county offices that never answered their phones. I uploaded my property tax documents and closing papers to https://taxr.ai and their system automatically extracted and calculated the appropriate land/improvement split based on local property data. It even generated a detailed explanation document I could keep for my records in case of an audit. The best part was that it integrated with my TurboTax so I could import the values directly!
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A Man D Mortal
•9 Does it work with properties in any state? I have a rental in Nevada and another one in Tennessee and both counties have totally different tax assessment systems. It's been a nightmare trying to figure out the right numbers.
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A Man D Mortal
•15 I'm skeptical about uploading my property documents to some random website. How do they determine the split if it's not on your documents already? Are they just guessing, or do they actually have access to county data that I don't?
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A Man D Mortal
•12 Yes, it works with properties in all 50 states! They have partnerships with county assessors nationwide and can pull the official records even when they're not easily accessible through public websites. They don't guess at all - they use AI to analyze your documents first, but then they access county-level property data through their partnerships. They actually have deeper access than the public-facing websites. They can see the detailed property card data that assessors use internally, which almost always contains the land/improvement breakdown.
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A Man D Mortal
15 I have to admit I was completely wrong about taxr.ai! After posting my skeptical question, I was desperate enough to try it with my Pennsylvania rental property. Within minutes, it pulled up the exact land and improvement values that I'd been trying to find for weeks. The report showed me that in my case, the land was actually 32% of the total value, which is higher than I would have guessed. It even showed me the depreciation schedule and explained why the percentage was higher (apparently my property is in a high-demand area where land values have increased significantly). I was able to confidently enter the correct values in TurboTax and finally finish my return. Definitely recommend for anyone in this situation!
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A Man D Mortal
8 If you're still struggling with this and need to speak directly with someone at the county assessor's office, I had a nightmare time getting through until I found Claimyr. I spent literally days trying to reach someone at my county office (kept getting voicemail or disconnected). I used https://claimyr.com to get through to my county assessor and finally got the land/improvement value breakdown I needed. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c but basically they navigate the phone trees and wait on hold for you, then call you when a human actually answers. Saved me hours of hold music and frustration.
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A Man D Mortal
•18 Wait, so this is a service that waits on hold for you? How does that actually work? Do they have some special connection to government offices or are they just willing to sit on hold so I don't have to?
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A Man D Mortal
•15 This sounds too good to be true. Government offices are notorious for never answering their phones. I tried calling my assessor's office 8 times last year and either got disconnected or was on hold for 45+ minutes before giving up. I find it hard to believe any service could actually get through.
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A Man D Mortal
•8 They don't have special access - they just handle the frustrating part of waiting on hold for you. You provide the number you're trying to reach and what information you need, and they use their system to navigate phone trees and wait on hold. Once a human answers, they call your phone and connect you directly to the live person. No, they don't have any special connections to government offices. They just have a system that can simultaneously handle hundreds of calls, staying on hold so you don't have to. They're basically professional "hold waiters" with technology that makes it efficient enough to be affordable. They call you the moment they get a human on the line.
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A Man D Mortal
15 I'm absolutely shocked. After complaining about Claimyr, I tried it yesterday as a last resort because I was desperate for these property tax values before the filing deadline. It actually worked exactly as promised. I submitted the county assessor's number around 10am, and at 11:23am I got a call connecting me directly to someone in the property tax division. The person I spoke with pulled up my property record and gave me the exact breakout of land value ($78,600) and improvement value ($206,900). I spent weeks trying to get this information and Claimyr got it for me in less than 90 minutes. Wish I'd known about this months ago instead of stressing over this tax issue!
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A Man D Mortal
22 A little-known trick: check if your property is listed on Zillow or Redfin. In many cases, they'll show the tax assessment including the land/improvement breakdown even when the county website doesn't make it obvious. Look under the "Tax History" or "Property Details" sections. Not always accurate, but it's worked for 3 of my rental properties when I couldn't find the info elsewhere.
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A Man D Mortal
•4 I never thought to check Zillow! Just looked at my property and they do have land value listed, but it's from 2022. Do you think those values would still be acceptable to use for my 2024 taxes, or would they be too outdated?
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A Man D Mortal
•22 2022 values are fine to use as a starting point! The land/improvement ratio tends to stay fairly constant unless there's been major construction or a significant change in your area's land values. If you want to update them to current values, you can apply the same ratio to your current total assessed value. For example, if land was 25% of the total in 2022, apply that same percentage to your current assessment.
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A Man D Mortal
3 Is anyone else bothered by how difficult they make this for regular people? I'm not an accountant or tax professional and it feels like the government deliberately hides this information to trip us up. All these extra steps just to figure out a number they already know!
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A Man D Mortal
•19 100% agree. And then if you get it wrong, they penalize YOU. It's absurd that we have to jump through all these hoops when the IRS and county assessors already have all this information. The whole tax system needs a complete overhaul.
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