50% Bonus Depreciation

[Black Bart]

Can you write off 50% of a building? I haven't had anybody need/want to do it yet, but it's kind of a fascinating concept to think of -- getting half a 39 year structure right now today.

What about passive income 27 1/2 year residential rentals?

My software lists a choice of electing out of all the various lives: 3-5-7-15-20-27-39 and so on, which makes me think maybe I'm not crazy, but I tried plugging in the buildings on both a dummy C and a dummy E -- it wouldn't fly. The 50% comes off automatically on cars but not so on buildings.

[S T]

Special Allowance

From the TB pg 9-16
Qualified property: property that qualifies for the 50% special depreciation allowance includes the following:
MACRS property with a recovery period of 20 years or less
Water Utility Property
computer Software that is not a Section 197 intangilbe asset
Qualified Leasehold Improvement Property

Property must have been acquired after 12/31/07 and before 1/1/2010

Then there is some other info after that.

Sandy

[Black Bart]

Thanks, Sandy

From the TB pg 9-16

Qualified property: property that qualifies for the 50% special depreciation allowance includes the following:
MACRS property with a recovery period of 20 years or less
Water Utility Property
computer Software that is not a Section 197 intangilbe asset
Qualified Leasehold Improvement Property

Property must have been acquired after 12/31/07 and before 1/1/2010

Then there is some other info after that.

Sandy

The TB 9-16 told me something I didn't know about the order of depreciation (179 first, bonus second, regular 3rd), but I still can't figure why my ATX offers this in Global Settings: "Check the boxes to elect NOT to claim first-year special depreciation -- All or specific years 3 5 7 10 15 20 27 39." Maybe it's that "Water Utility Property" or something, but I'll dig around later -- no client pressing me on it now.

Found out anything yet on your "New Business" question? I know you're looking for specific answers and get tired of the general "It's stupid/they're crooks" and my "Get out of it if you can" (easier said than done) replies, but nobody seems to have a firm answer. I assume you've searched back on TB; I did too -- saw some relevant comments but nothing definite. I'll bump your post back up for another shot at it after the morning flurry since early posts get pushed to the bottom right away now.

[David1980]

I think every software I've ever tried has allowed some things to be done that weren't allowed or reported things in a not-quite-right fashion. Probably a good thing the software isn't perfect because if the software ever gets good enough to do the job on it's own I'm not sure what I'll be doing.