A non-computer-literate friend of mine has a rental situation:

His tax preparer passed away some time a little over 2 years ago.

My friend doesn't have copies of those returns and can't retrieve them (2007 tax year & earlier. BAD. I know)

He's gone to 2 different preparers the last 2 years showing them the prior year's return.

His long time preparer was convicted for tax fraud, so my friend's dilemma doesn't surprise me.

He trusts me and asked me if I could look at his taxes before he finds another preparer.

He doesn't want to go back to the last preparer because of an error they made (taxes were done by hand and they looked up the tax amount and inadvertantly wrote down the wrong amount)

HERE's the CURRENT PROBLEM:

He can only provide me w/last year's return to review.

On his rentals, NO DEPRECIATION was claimed.

I can't figure out if in PRIOR years any depreciation was claimed, in order to use those numbers (My guess is NO)

What I'm guessing is happening when he goes to these preparers is a communication problem (foreign born, both him & them).

I'm guessing they don't care to ask him for the records or numbers (hassle). They just want their money and him out the door. Just guesses.

Before he finds a new preparer, any recommendations I could pass along about what he'll need to do & what forms he'll need to file? (4652? 3115?)

There's practically nothing on the internet that I can find relating to this.

I already told him HE'S GOT TO SAVE EVERYTHING from now on. Including receipts, by the way (same problem).

Thanks in advance for any help.