short-term van rental

centaur1905

My car broke down and I had to rent a van for a few months instead of a car because I do work on my rental properties myself. Is the rental expense deductible? and how should I report it? Also, should I just spread the cost evenly across the properties? Thank you in advance.

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PhillipB

Hello,

Yes, but it would be only partially deductible according to the business (or rental) mileage divided by total mileage you drove in the van. In this situation, the simplest and most conservative path would be to report the standard mileage rate as opposed to claiming the actual vehicle expenses for the rental van.

To report the rental van, follow these steps:
Click on the Income TAB > Rental Income (Schedule E) > Click edit on the rental property in the list.
On the screen labeled "Your Rental" click "+Add a Vehicle > Enter Rental Van as the description and enter all of the other information with the exception of a Date of Disposal > mark that the van was Leased

If you want to deduct actual expenses, you can only do so if you tracked both business mileage and total mileage you drove in the rental van. If you only report business miles, an actual expenses deduction would be incorrect.

Let us know if there are additional questions or concerns.

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