Election to use straight line depreciation

[Gretel]

Got somewhat shocked today after I discovered by accident that there is a formal election for using straight line depreciation. I used straight line in the past and believed that that was the election - just doing it. Does straight line depreciation require a formal election. Of course, I also elected out of bonus if applicable. By the way, this came up with a 1065 return and ProSeries did not transfer my elections from the asset work sheets to the election form, so I checked it manually.

[TaxGuyBill]

Got somewhat shocked today after I discovered by accident that there is a formal election for using straight line depreciation. I used straight line in the past and believed that that was the election - just doing it. Does straight line depreciation require a formal election. Of course, I also elected out of bonus if applicable. By the way, this came up with a 1065 return and ProSeries did not transfer my elections from the asset work sheets to the election form, so I checked it manually.

Publication 946 says you just report it as SL.


Straight line election.
Instead of using either the 200% or 150% declining balance methods over the GDS recovery period, you can elect to use the straight line method over the GDS recovery period. Make the election by entering "S/L" under column (f) in Part III of Form 4562.

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p946#en_US_2020_publink1000107551