By Beau Thoutt
Depreciation is a key tax benefit for rental property owners, and accelerated depreciation can help you maximize your deductions during the first years of ownership. Depreciation allows real estate investors to deduct the wear and tear of a property annually. The accelerated depreciation method lets landlords front-load deductions for eligible assets, such as fixtures and movable assets, to reduce taxable income in those years.
Accelerated depreciation on rental property can be complex, so let’s break it down. Today, we’ll cover these topics:
With these key elements, you can evaluate the depreciation strategy for your properties and determine whether accelerated depreciation is the right fit for your portfolio.
Highlight: Accelerated depreciation is an essential tax strategy for real estate investors, helping reduce taxable income and improve your cash flow.
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Depreciation helps landlords recover their investment in real property through annual pre-tax deductions. The most commonly used method is standard or straight-line depreciation, which spreads deductions evenly over 27.5 years for residential properties and 39 years for non-residential ones.
The deductions stop once an asset depreciates fully, even though the asset still has value. When an asset is sold, the depreciation schedule resets, and the new owner may deduct depreciation.
Another method of accounting for a property’s wear and tear is accelerated depreciation. This method provides several benefits:
Instead of spreading out depreciation evenly over 27.5 years, accelerated depreciation fully depreciates eligible assets, like driveways or plumbing fixtures, in five to 15 years. The asset’s lifespan determines the depreciation schedule.
Highlight: Accelerated depreciation enables landlords to deduct assets like appliances and fixtures within five to seven years.
Accelerated depreciation is a faster method of reclaiming your initial investment. This method reclassifies assets so that they have a shorter lifespan than the useful life of the entire structure. You can deduct more of the total depreciation within the first five to 15 years of purchasing a rental unit.
These assets are eligible for accelerated depreciation:
To identify qualifying assets, consider conducting a cost segregation study. These studies break down a property’s cost basis into components, determining their value and depreciation schedule. We’ll cover cost segregation studies in more depth later in this article.
Let’s look at an example to compare the effect of straight-line and accelerated depreciation on your bottom line. Here’s the critical information for our test case property:
Using straight-line depreciation, you’ll deduct $6,872.72 annually for 27.5 years. Accelerated depreciation allows you to deduct appliances and flooring over five years and the patio over 15 years, increasing initial deductions by $1,630.31.
The benefits of accelerated depreciation go beyond larger deductions. Depreciation is a non-cash deduction, so it doesn’t cost you anything or affect your cash flow—but it can affect your bottom line. Let’s say the rental unit from our example has a pre-tax net income of $8,000. With the accelerated depreciation deduction, the net income creates a loss of −$503.03. Remember, you still have a positive cash flow. It’s a paper loss only; you can carry that loss forward to use in future tax years.
Highlight: Accelerated depreciation provides rental property tax benefits by immediately reducing your tax liability without negatively affecting your cash flow.
Accelerated depreciation looks at the useful life of assets individually instead of grouping a property’s depreciation into one lump sum each year. This accounts for assets that lose their value more quickly when they’re new and may require more repairs and maintenance when they’re older. Since assets like appliances and furnaces have a shorter life span than the building itself, that means investors can depreciate those items faster.
Your investment strategy can determine whether accelerated depreciation is right for you. Once you take accelerated depreciation, you’ll have a lower annual depreciation deduction in the future—a drawback for long-term investors. Some investors rely on accelerated depreciation more for short-term investment strategies. Others use it to increase cash flow during the early years, so it’s easier for them to scale their portfolio growth. Talk to your tax advisor to see if this strategy is right for your situation and goals.
The Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS) is a depreciation system that allows investors to recover an asset’s capitalized cost over a specified period through annual deductions. With MACRS, fixed assets are put into classes that determine how long your depreciation schedule will last. Assets related to real estate generally fall into four classes:
Most real estate investors use MACRS’s general depreciation system, which uses the declining balance method. This method lets investors take larger depreciation deductions in the early years, then smaller amounts in later years.
Highlight: A landlord can classify new flooring under MACRS for five years rather than the property’s full depreciation schedule.
The double-declining balance (DDB) method allows higher deductions in the early years of owning an asset. This method doubles the reciprocal of the asset’s useful life and then applies the rate to the depreciated book value for the rest of the asset’s expected life.
Here’s the DDB method of accelerated depreciation formula, as applied to the appliances from our earlier example. They’re worth $9,000 with a five-year life, so they’ll have a reciprocal value of 1/5, or 20%. Doubling that rate gives us 40% to apply to the book value for depreciation.
$9,000 × 40% = $3,600 of depreciation in the first year
$5,400 × 40% = $2,160 of depreciation in the second year
The rate remains constant over time, but the value decreases because we multiply the rate with a lower depreciable base each year.
The double-declining balance method is most useful for assets with short lifespans. Front-loading the depreciation on these assets helps match the depreciation expense with the cost of the original purchase. Assets that lose their value more quickly work well with this method:
Highlight: The double-declining balance method more closely matches up the depreciation deduction with the asset’s purchase, so landlords can offset more of the cost that year.
The second way to speed up depreciation is with the sum of the years’ digits (SYD) method. This approach assigns a percentage to each year of a property’s useful life. The SYD method is better for properties expected to hold their value well but may need repairs later. Unlike the double-declining balance method, the SYD accounts for the asset’s salvage value.
This method front-loads an asset’s depreciation in the first year and gradually decreases it over its useful life. We calculate the percentage for each year by adding up the remaining years of the property’s useful life. For this example, let’s say you bought a vehicle for your rental property business. The vehicle initially costs $30,000, and you expect to sell it for $10,000 in five years.
Year | SYD Rate Calculation | Depreciation Expense |
---|---|---|
Year 1 | 5 ÷ (5+4+3+2+1) = 33% | $6,666.67 |
Year 2 | 4 ÷ (5+4+3+2+1) = 27% | $5,333.33 |
Year 3 | 3 ÷ (5+4+3+2+1) = 20% | $4,000.00 |
Year 4 | 2 ÷ (5+4+3+2+1) = 13% | $2,666.67 |
Year 5 | 1 ÷ (5+4+3+2+1) = 7% | $1,333.33 |
Note that the percentages in the SYD formula should add up to 100. Use Excel’s SYD function or an online calculator to create a schedule for an asset’s SYD depreciation.
Highlight: The SYD method helps landlords balance an asset’s depreciation deductions with its repairs and maintenance costs, providing a more constant overall cost during the asset’s lifespan.
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When you buy a residential rental property, the IRS allows you to depreciate the entire property over 27.5 years. This treats all the assets that make up the property as one. But, a rental property has many components. If you were to buy them separately, you could depreciate the individual assets over five to 15 years. A cost segregation study breaks down the components of a property and determines each one’s value and usable life. Here’s how a cost segregation study works:
A cost segregation study is best for properties purchased or built within the last 15 years. Once you’ve purchased, built, or remodeled a property, you can order a study anytime. However, you’ll get the most tax savings if you order the study before you file your taxes the same year you buy, build, or remodel the property.
If you didn’t order a study that year, it’s not too late. You can order a look-back study instead, and that allows you to take a catch-up deduction in one year. The catch-up deduction equals the difference between your original depreciation claim and what you could have claimed if you’d done the cost segregation study earlier. The IRS allows property owners to order look-back studies on properties they bought, built, or remodeled as early as January 1, 1987.
Highlight: Although a cost segregation study is an additional outlay, it’s essential for accurately evaluating assets and maximizing depreciation benefits.
Bonus depreciation is a one-time benefit that investors can claim to take up to 100% of an asset’s depreciation in its first year. This strategy applies to property purchased and put into service between September 27, 2017, and January 1, 2023. Let’s examine our example property again to see how bonus depreciation compares to the straight-line and accelerated methods.
Item | Straight-line 27.5 Years | Accelerated Depreciation | Bonus Depreciation |
---|---|---|---|
Property cost basis | $185,000 | $166,000 | $166,000 |
Depreciation expense | −$6,872.72 | −$6,036.36 | −$6,036.36 |
Appliances and flooring cost basis | 0 | $9,000 | $9,000 |
Appliance and flooring depreciation | 0 | −$1,800 | -$9,000 |
Patio cost basis | 0 | $10,000 | $10,000 |
Patio depreciation | 0 | −$666.67 | -$10,000 |
Total depreciation expense | −$6,872.72 | −$8,503.03 | −$25,036.36 |
Rental property owners can use Section 179 to deduct the full cost of certain assets, like appliances and office equipment, in the year of purchase, up to $1 million.
The IRS has some rules about this, though. You must purchase the assets for cash during that year. Unlike the bonus depreciation option, with Section 179, there is an income requirement. You may not use Section 179 to deduct more than your net taxable business income, but you can carry forward an overage amount to use in future years.
Section 179 allows you to fully deduct the costs of these assets:
Note that Section 179 does not apply to these assets:
If your rental property is an investment only—not a business—then the IRS doesn’t permit you to take a 179 deduction. Talk with your tax advisor before taking a Section 179 deduction to make sure you qualify.
Pro tip: Use TurboTenant’s expense-tracking tools to make sure you take advantage of every available deduction.
Highlight: Section 179 lets landlords deduct up to $1 million in qualified assets in the purchase year.
Depreciation deductions help you offset the cost of an asset, but they come with a downside: depreciation recapture, a potential tax liability that comes with selling a property. This tax helps the IRS recapture some of the benefits taxpayers receive from depreciation deductions. When a property owner sells an asset, the IRS uses this simplified formula to determine the asset’s value:
Original purchase price – total depreciated amount = original value
Sale price – original value = taxable capital gains
These gains count as ordinary income, and the maximum tax on recaptured depreciation is 25%. Note that the maximum capital gains tax is 20%, depending on your tax bracket. If you use accelerated depreciation, you may end up owing more because of depreciation recapture.
However, there are strategies you can use to minimize depreciation recapture. Talk with your tax advisor about Section 1031 exchanges or Qualified Opportunity Funds. You could also align the sale of an asset with a year when you’re in a lower tax bracket. And remember, the initial cash flow benefits and re-investment opportunities frequently outweigh recapture costs.
Highlight: Selling an asset can trigger depreciation recapture taxes, but they can be managed with tax-planning strategies and are often offset by the early tax benefits.
TurboTenant: Rental Property Depreciation Calculator
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Written by Kevin Kiene
Landlord insurance costs have risen significantly over the last decade. In just the last four years, the average cost of property insurance has increased by 25 to 45%.
Rising insurance costs directly cut into investors’ returns and can impact investing strategies. To ensure their properties stay profitable, Landlords need to be aware of changing insurance costs and have a plan for dealing with them.
Several factors have impacted insurance costs in recent years. As a general rule, Landlords pay more for insurance than homeowners do. Insurance companies see Tenants as a higher risk than owner-occupants. To compensate for this risk, Landlord insurance typically costs 20-25% more than homeowners insurance.
That said, the cost of both Landlord insurance and homeowners has increased dramatically in the last decade. Several factors have led to this increase, including:
Rising insurance premiums mean increased operational costs for Landlords. This leads to decreased profits and less attractive returns. While some of the added expense can be passed on to Tenants through increased rent, this isn’t always the case.
Insurance costs are fixed. Even if a property is vacant or if rental markets soften, Landlords are responsible for paying insurance premiums. This cuts into cash flow and makes properties less desirable for investors.
Small Landlords and Landlords in high-risk areas are the most impacted by higher insurance rates. Property owners in California and Florida have been hit the hardest.
Extreme weather has caused insurance costs to double or triple in these coastal areas. Many Florida homeowners are paying four times the national average for insurance. In addition, it’s prompting some insurance companies to leave the areas altogether. Experts anticipate that Texas, Louisiana, and Colorado will see similar increases in the coming years.
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Insurance costs aren’t going down and will likely continue their upward trend. Landlords need to be aware of this and proactive about addressing it.
The good news is there are things you can do to minimize the impact insurance costs have on your investment portfolio. Here are some tips for dealing with this new reality:
Landlord insurance is a rising concern for Landlords, but it’s an issue that Landlords can manage with good systems and planning. Effective Tenant Screening and property management are two key ways Landlords can help to keep insurance and operating costs down.
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By Frank Jachetta
As the rental landscape shifts, landlords are encountering a growing number of non-traditional tenants, including freelancers, recent graduates, and international students. According to Statista, the U.S. workforce is projected to include 86.5 million freelancers by 2027, accounting for 50.9% of all workers.
This shift underscores the need for landlords to be prepared to accommodate renters who may not have conventional income streams or employment histories, presenting both an opportunity to expand the tenant pool and a challenge in mitigating rental income loss as a result of rent defaults.
However, with the right tools and strategies, landlords can confidently welcome these tenants
while safeguarding their rental income and profits. Here are the top three ways to protect your rental income and minimize risk when renting to non-traditional tenants.
1 – Utilize Rent Coverage from The Guarantors
For many landlords, traditional screening criteria such as credit scores and steady income sources are vital for assessing risk. But with today’s growing diversity in renter profiles, including unique work arrangements, not every qualified tenant will meet these standards. That’s where The Guarantors’ Rent Coverage product comes into play.
The Guarantors provides coverage that acts as a safety net for landlords by protecting against losses from defaults, damages, vacancies, and lease breaks—all without increasing a landlord’s operating expenses. This service is particularly beneficial when renting to freelancers, gig workers, international students, recent graduates, or non-U.S. citizens, who might not have an established credit score and/or consistent income flow.
For example, consider an international student studying abroad in the U.S. with minimal income and no credit history. With The Guarantors’ Rent Coverage, landlords can feel secure, knowing that missed rent payments will be covered.
Instead of spending your valuable time chasing down guarantors, The Guarantors serves as cosigner, saving you time and minimizing your losses. This solution can be particularly advantageous in markets where student housing is in high demand or properties near universities, where landlords might see high turnover and fluctuating income risk.
The benefit of this coverage extends to tenants far beyond the student demographic; for example, for a freelancer who may not yet have a regular, full-time income, this product serves as a buffer against potential income instability.
Rent Coverage from TheGuarantors can also serve as a bridge for non-U.S. citizens who may have a high-paying job but lack the credit history or social security number typically required for leasing. By stepping in as a guarantor, TheGuarantors makes it possible for landlords to qualify these tenants without added risk.
2 – Implement Comprehensive Tenant Screening
Tenant screening is a foundational step in the rental process that provides landlords with valuable insights into a tenant’s reliability. But not all tenant screenings are created equally when evaluating non-traditional renters. It’s essential to use a comprehensive screening
service that can provide a fuller picture of a tenant’s ability to pay, even if they don’t have a traditional credit or income history.
For example, landlords can call a current employer or previous landlord, to get real time information even if the applicant has no social security number or credit history. This approach can reveal signs of responsibility and financial stability that might not appear in a traditional credit check.
In addition, landlords can order a criminal history report from AAOA using only the applicant’s name and date of birth or contact AAOA for an international tenant screening quote. Landlords can also review bank statements or tax returns, helping to paint a more accurate picture of the
applicant’s suitability as a tenant. Combining tenant screening tools with added, incremental risk mitigation methods like TheGuarantors’ products enables landlords to make better informed decisions when renting to non-traditional renters.
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3 – Offer Deposit Alternatives with TheGuarantors’ Deposit Coverage
Security deposits are a tried-and-true way to safeguard rental income against damage and defaults. However, for some renters, especially those with limited liquidity, a traditional deposit can be a significant barrier. TheGuarantors’ Deposit Coverage product provides a flexible solution that benefits both landlords and tenants, offering tenants a lower-cost deposit alternative while offering landlords robust financial protection.
Instead of requiring renters to pay a full deposit upfront, TheGuarantors’ Deposit Coverage allows tenants to pay a smaller, one-time fee. This product is especially helpful for tenants who might lack the cash reserves for a hefty security deposit, allowing them to keep more of their cash and lower move-in costs. For landlords, it provides the same financial coverage as a traditional deposit, including protection against property damage and unpaid rent, while also helping to attract a broader pool of renters.
For example, freelancers with irregular income or retirees with sufficient savings but no steady
income can move in without paying a hefty deposit, reducing vacancy times for landlords. For
landlords, it’s a win-win: they retain the financial protection they need while offering renters a
convenient, more affordable entry to housing.
CONCLUSION
As the rental landscape changes, more non-traditional renters, including freelancers, recent graduates, and international students, are entering the market. Landlords who can adapt their leasing strategies to attract and retain these renters are well-positioned to benefit from a broader, more diverse tenant pool.
Using tools like TheGuarantors’ Rent and Deposit Coverage products provides financial assurance when renting to high-potential but non-traditional tenants. Coupled with AAOA’s comprehensive tenant screening services, these solutions allow landlords to approach each applicant with a nuanced understanding of their reliability and ability to meet financial obligations.
Incorporating these strategies not only helps protect rental income but also enables landlords to tap into new, promising markets with confidence. By focusing on innovative solutions like these, landlords can maintain a healthy occupancy rate, mitigate financial risks, and ultimately, drive long term profitability in a competitive rental market.
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