Could you help me understand taxes and my rental property?

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i know nothing about RE, but this seems like a terrible ratio. Unless that includes repair and such...

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I'm an accidental landlord. It's priced for the area, but there's not much I can do about the mortgage especially thanks to PMI.

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I received $15000 in 2015 from my tenants, and after all deductions (~$2000 for repairs, ~$1600 for insurance, ~$800 for taxes), I had to pay $1400 in taxes.

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My tenants pay $1250/month for rent, and my total mortgage payment (including taxes, insurance, PMI, etc) is $1120.

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Seems like we're missing something.

Did you deduct mortgage interest? Is the property completed it's depreciation schedule?

With the ratio of 1250 in and 1120 out, you should be operating at a considerable loss.

I'm a little curious about something. You seem to have a fairly large mortgage, but pay very little in insurance in taxes (IMO). Are those amounts accurate?

With a mort. payment(PITI) of $1120 and only paying $200/mo in TI leaves you with an expensive mortgage. What is the term on the mortgage?
Would a refi be worth exploring?

You need to sell that property ASAP.

I would agree that you need to look at selling this property. Only getting that amount of rent for a property valued at $170K and having to pay PMI, makes this a pretty crappy deal for you. Just imagine if you had a HVAC, plumbing issue, etc. that ended up costing you $3-4K. If you owe $161K and can get $170K today, I would try and get out from under that asap.

ETA: Just my opinion but if you have to pay PMI on a rental property, you should own it. Not to say that it is impossible or anything but that is too much money to be spending on something that is not necessary.

Property taxes in AL are ridiculous low. 200/month seems about right for an investment property with no homestead exemption.

I used turbotax too. The first year, you have to run through and set up the depreciation schedule. In subsequent years the depreciation should be automatically included AS LONG AS YOU KEEP USING TURBOTAX.

I'm in a very, very similar boat. Essentially zero cash flow, but don't let everyone tell you this is a terrible idea necessarily. It all depends on the specific area and your situation.

For me, I chose this route to let property values recover because I couldn't see paying 5-10K just to be able to move out of the house. 2 years later, property values boomed, and now we have 15K in equity. However, now is absolutely the right time for me to sell and pick up a better long term buy and hold investment property.

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It was one thing to have my rental property HELP my tax return last year. This year, I had to pay $300 to the feds and $150 to the state, and I was getting money until I entered in my rental income. My family just can't handle surprises right now unfortunately.

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Something isn't adding up for me. I thought this rental property was generating a loss for you. If that's the case you definitely should not be paying more in taxes. If anything, your tax liability could be reduced depending on other factors.

You should hire a CPA.

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Something isn't adding up for me. I thought this rental property was generating a loss for you. If that's the case you definitely should not be paying more in taxes. If anything, your tax liability could be reduced depending on other factors.

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This. Can you preview your Sch. E in TurboTax? What are you reporting on line 3 (rents received), line 18 (depreciation), and line 20 (total expenses). Let's start there, but more information may be needed.