179 depreciation question

[Omy]

For our rental unit, Turbo Tax is asking if I want to depreciate the new sliding glass doors and the new hvac in one year or over time.

I thought I had to depreciate improvements over a 27.5 year period. I did that for the roof we installed in 2019.

In 2021 we added the new sliding glass doors ($4000), the new hvac system ($4000) and had another $3000 in repairs (that were not improvements). Can I really deduct all $11k in one year?

[catccc]

Yup.  You can.  I think the limit is $500k or $1m.  You can expense all $11k rather than depreciating over useful life.  It’s been many, many  years since I did taxes professionally, but I believe this is correct.

[AerynLee]

Doors and HVAC have a shorter depreciable life than a roof, I want to say they're 5-7 years. But you cannot take Sec179 on a rental to expense it all in one year.
Depending on what the $3k in other repairs were, you might be able to write all of that off as a repair expense instead of a capital one

[uniwelder]

I've gotten confused about this same question, and don't have a definitive answer, but read some info online.  For the years 2018-2022, you can deduct 100% of the value of things like stoves, roof, hvac, doors, etc, in the year of purchase.  Here's an article I found---- https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/how-landlords-can-deduct-long-term-assets.html

Also, you can supposedly you can deduct up to 10k or 2% of the property value for repairs, and pretty much throw anything that costs less than $2,500 a piece into that category, up to the limit.

[Omy]

Thanks for the replies. The depreciation topic is beyond my comprehension. The IRS publication on the topic is over 100 pages long and I get bleary eyed attempting to understand it. And Turbo Tax asks questions that aren't helpful if you don't really understand the topic. Its It's probably time to hire an expert...

[catccc]

Oh, AerynLee is correct.

For residential rental property, you cannot take section 179.  It would work for rental of qualified restaurant or retail, but not just a residential rental.

You would depreciate over the useful life for improvements, and you would expense most repairs right away.  The useful life of a building is 27.5 years.  The doors and HVAC would be different.