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April 14, 2023
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Depreciation from previous years

  • April 14, 2023
  • 2 replies
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Last year I started a small business - I bought equipment that I listed as assets to depreciate - looks like 5 years, and elected to take a portion of the value as a deduction in 2021.

This left me with a portion of the equipments' value as an asset to depreciate.
However, I'm not sure how to claim the depreciation this year. It should be 1/5th of the value that was given last year, since it was a straight-line depreciation.

    Best answer by ThomasM125

    Once you enter the equipment in TurboTax and list the cost and date put into service, TurboTax will calculate the depreciation for the year entered and the following years automatically. 

     

    If you didn't use TurboTax last year, you need to enter the asset when you enter your business expenses, in the Business Assets section, and then Assets being depreciated. You will be asked to enter the amount of any special or bonus depreciation taken when you first entered the asset, also the cost and date put into service. TurboTax will calculate the depreciation for the current and following years based on what you entered.

    2 replies

    April 14, 2023

    Once you enter the equipment in TurboTax and list the cost and date put into service, TurboTax will calculate the depreciation for the year entered and the following years automatically. 

     

    If you didn't use TurboTax last year, you need to enter the asset when you enter your business expenses, in the Business Assets section, and then Assets being depreciated. You will be asked to enter the amount of any special or bonus depreciation taken when you first entered the asset, also the cost and date put into service. TurboTax will calculate the depreciation for the current and following years based on what you entered.

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    h-bomb
    February 18, 2025

    Hello @ThomasM125

     

    I entered an Investment Asset Depreciation last year on TurboTax Premium online and this year, as

    TurboTax Premium online reviews my forms, it discovers an issue and states that an item needs to be reviewed and takes me to the Asset Entry Worksheet (for 2024) and states I need to enter the Special Depreciation Allowance Deduction. Note that this is for a computer that I used 15% of the time (i.e., percentage of business use) last year and I still own it.

     

    When I navigate directly to this entry on my state return, this is the message at the top:

     

    Prior Year Depreciation (for my computer)
    Because this asset was placed in service in a prior year and a 30% or 50% bonus depreciation allowance was taken, we are unable to calculate the prior California depreciation.

     

    And these fields to enter:

    • Prior Year Depreciation
      • Do I enter the deduction reported on the state Depreciation and 2023 Amortization Adjustments form 3885A?
    • AMT Prior Year Depreciation
      • Not quite clear on this yet...

     And these are some of the values I have (and most are editable):

    -----------------------------------
    Original Cost of computer: $3,678

     

    Regular Deprecation Section:
    Depreciation Type selected: MACRS
    Depreciation and method selected: 200DB
    MACRS convention selected: HY
    Recovery period period: 5.0
    Year of depreciation: 2
    Depreciable basis: 552

     

    Alternative Minimum Tax Depreciation Section:
    AMT depreciation method: 150DB
    AMT recovery period: 5.0
    AMT depreciable basis: 552

    Eligible Section 179 property?: [Not selected on the worksheet]
    -----------------------------------

     

    Please help me understand why TurboTax is not able to calculate this and if known, how do I go about calculating this, if I should adjust any of the pre-selected values on the state worksheet or if I should just leave the Special Depreciation Allowance Deduction blank?

     

    Thanks so much,
    H

    h-bomb
    February 19, 2025

    It is apparent that you didn't use any special depreciation in prior years, so you should either leave that entry blank or enter $0 for it.


    Thanks so much @ThomasM125 and I appreciate the quick response.

    hung3Author
    April 15, 2023

    Thank you all for your help!

    I started doing it manually under Assets and Depreciation or something, until the import using the tax2021 file - I grabbed that and it imported everything and it automatically did the depreciation for me.