SFFLeague wrote:

- quote -

I would suspect that no part of the house was used
*exclusively* for the business in the view of the tax pro.

If at some point you caused portions used exclusively for
business (I don't know how large of time frame that needs to
be), you could take depreciation. If that was the case in
2004, you could also file an amended return.

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Might have been a mistake, but the preparer might have been
trying to save you money on your tax prep fees. It is
something of a problem at a firm that charges per form, i.e.
$10,300 on a Schedule A when the Standard deduction is
$10,000 and the form costs $34.

<< ================================================== ===== > << The foregoing is intended for educational purposes only > << and does NOT constitute legal OR professional advice. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting > << messages to this newsgroup are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2006) - All rights reserved. > << ================================================== ===== >

I would have no idea why it was not claimed in prior years.
However, the law states that you will charged (when you sell
the house) with depreciation that was allowed, or
depreciation that would have been allowable. That is to
say, whether you claim that depreciation or not, what would
have been allowable will be prior depreciation. It might be
worth amending the prior years (back three years) to claim
that which was not taken, since you will pay tax on what
would have been taken when you sell your home.

<< ================================================== ===== > << The foregoing is intended for educational purposes only > << and does NOT constitute legal OR professional advice. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting > << messages to this newsgroup are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2006) - All rights reserved. > << ================================================== ===== >

We decided to give TurboTax a try after using a tax pro for
many years. It was mostly a breeze to use, but I do have one
question, regarding Depreciation of Your Home Office.

When I was originally filling everything out and it came to
the part about "Home Office Asset Summary" I filled out the
Asset Start Date, Asset Cost, and then came to "Enter More
Asset Information," where it asks about prior year's
depreciation and prior AMT depreciation taken. I went to my
return from last year (when we first owned our home) and
found that our tax pro had not included the house for
depreciation.

So I've read a bit about the subject on the group here and
the consensus seems to be that you should claim the
depreciation. But what reason would the tax pro (who has
since retired) have had for NOT claiming it last year?

Would appreciate any thoughts. Thanks!

<< ================================================== ===== > << The foregoing is intended for educational purposes only > << and does NOT constitute legal OR professional advice. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting > << messages to this newsgroup are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2006) - All rights reserved. > << ================================================== ===== >