Child Daycare Business Asset Depreciation

[RWG1950]

Customer operates a daycare business out of her home, filing a "C".
I've been depreciating the allowed business portion of the house (using 39 years) on the form 8829.
The deck of the house collapsed under a snowstorm in 2019 & had to largely be rebuilt.
As I understand the rules, this expense cannot be deducted as repairs or maint.
if this is to be treated as new property, over how many years is this asset depreciated ?
It would seem logical to add this to the basis of the house, (& use 39 years) but a wooden deck doesn't last anywhere near that long.
Thanks for comments.

[Rapid Robert]

I would not add it to any depreciation schedule at all unless it was directly used as part of the day car operation. Consider, for example, if the homeowner added a closet into their personal bedroom (not used for daycare), would you consider that an asset to be depreciated as part of the day care business?

But more importantly, the deck is merely a replacement of existing property. So yes, you can treat the new deck as part of the house, but you also should recognize a partial asset disposition of the old deck, so it seems the net result doesn't change the depreciable basis.

[TaxGuyBill]

Unfortunately, yes, from what I've read, a deck needs to be depreciated over 39 years. And a deck is almost certainly used by the daycare children.

As Rapid Robert pointed out, you DO have the option to do a Partial Disposition. But the net result almost certainly WILL change the total depreciable Basis (but the new deck would be depreciated as a separate asset from the reduced-Basis house). Most likely, the cost of the new deck is higher than the original cost of the old deck, resulting in a total higher depreciable Basis.