Rental Property Depreciation

[NotEasy]

Tax payer has a rental property. He knows the purchase price of the property. But we have no idea the allocation between the build and the land for tax purpose. Usually we can find this information on the property tax bill. But the one that he has does not show the information. It is just a simple bill with the amount due. He cannot find the previous years tax return so we cannot find the information from his prior tax records.

So is there a commonly acceptable way to determine the allocation?

[Jiggers]

Tax payer has a rental property. He knows the purchase price of the property. But we have no idea the allocation between the build and the land for tax purpose. Usually we can find this information on the property tax bill. But the one that he has does not show the information. It is just a simple bill with the amount due. He cannot find the previous years tax return so we cannot find the information from his prior tax records.

So is there a commonly acceptable way to determine the allocation?

Can he get the appraisal office, or whatever you call it in your area, to give the information? All appraisal offices have the detail.

If not, I have used 25% for the land. But that has been rare and hasn't been through an IRS audit.

[FEDUKE404]

Just get the information from the tax folks

Why not just contact the tax authority instead of guessing?

Every property owner in this county has real estate/tax records for at least the last ten years available online. (I imagine a phone call could find even older records.) While the "tax bill" may not show such details, the tax records should.

FWIW: I just checked my own real property taxes (for 2012) and the account data shows the "Land Value Assessed" and the "Building Value Assessed." The sum of those numbers appears on the actual tax bill. Oh yes: value of the land is 35% of the total.

FE

[Lion]

Around here, the percentage for land is a lot higher. In fact, most of the value of my property is in the land and not the house. Have client call his tax assessor to get his specific breakdown if he can't look it up on line.

[S T]

All of the other suggestions are good idea , but I suspect you are under the 10/15 deadline - like many of us.

Did you try online, either retrieving at the Property Tax Collector, or the Property Tax Assessor.

You didn't mention the State-County you are in - so not sure what you have available online

I have even used a couple year old Property Tax Bill for the percentage to land/value ratios, dependening on your real estate values, in the past the percentage has not changed much. You are just trying to establishs the percentage for depreciation.

How long has this client had the property and showing as a rental? You mention he can not locate last years return, but about the year prior to that??

Sandy