10x12 storage building

[Safire]

Is there any exception for a small building like this used exclusively for storage? I really really hate to spread this out over 39 years. Will be used for business not agriculture.

Thanks in advance.

[taxlady]

Regardless of depreciation class or period, you can always Sec 179 these small items if allowed for your client.

[Gretel]

Storage Building

I disagree with expensing unless it's not classified as real property. I doubt you can do that.

[rosieea]

You can't expense a storage building.

[Unregistered]

Shed

You can't expense a storage building.

If the shed is not permanently affixed to the ground (i.e. is movable). I would take the position that it is not Real property and therefore would be able to write it off under Section 179.

I know of several people who did this for property tax reasons as well.

Hope that helps.

[Jesse]

Thinking out loud

If it's not real property it wouldn't have the 39 year depreciable life?

[Unregistered]

If it's not real property it wouldn't have the 39 year depreciable life?

Correct.......

[Armando Beaujolais]

If the shed is not permanently affixed to the ground (i.e. is movable). I would take the position that it is not Real property and therefore would be able to write it off under Section 179.

I know of several people who did this for property tax reasons as well.

Hope that helps.

The original question called it a "small building." If it's not real estate, what is it?

I put antlers on Charlie the Dog over the Christmas holiday and called him "Rudolf." But that didn't really make him a reindeer. Poor dog.

I don't mean to be too sarcastic. I'm just concerned about suggesting that someone pretend that a building isn't a building so they can take the Section 179 deduction. I'm also a little leery about calling a building a reindeer so your property taxes won't be so high. It would have to be a pretty big building to make much difference in property taxes. Oh, well, I guess if you're going to go in, you might as well swim for it, right?

[Unregistered]

The original question called it a "small building." If it's not real estate, what is it?

I put antlers on Charlie the Dog over the Christmas holiday and called him "Rudolf." But that didn't really make him a reindeer. Poor dog.

I don't mean to be too sarcastic. I'm just concerned about suggesting that someone pretend that a building isn't a building so they can take the Section 179 deduction. I'm also a little leery about calling a building a reindeer so your property taxes won't be so high. It would have to be a pretty big building to make much difference in property taxes. Oh, well, I guess if you're going to go in, you might as well swim for it, right?

Well... if you didnt mean to be SARCASTIC. What exactly did you mean to be? She also called it a SHED and my definition of a shed is something that MAY be portable. Comments like yours are exactly why I do not respond to many posts on here. In any event I hope the ORIGINAL poster got his/her answer. Best luck to all this tax season.

[Bees Knees]

Well... if you didnt mean to be SARCASTIC. What exactly did you mean to be? She also called it a SHED and my definition of a shed is something that MAY be portable. Comments like yours are exactly why I do not respond to many posts on here. In any event I hope the ORIGINAL poster got his/her answer. Best luck to all this tax season.

Don’t mind Armando. He has been ornery ever since they repealed code section 32(n). For some strange reason, that was his favorite code section, even though nobody else in the world even knew what it was or why it was there.

I know this is not a farm building, but there could be a principle that might help. Single purposes agricultural and horticultural structures have a 10 year life, and qualify for Section 179. Farm buildings, other than single purpose structures, have a 20 year life and do not qualify for Section 179.

I believe the principle here is that rather than argue size of a structure, you have to look at its purpose. A single purpose structure could be larger than a house. But it is designed more as a piece of equipment that has a specific function rather than a real estate structure. Given that concept, a small storage shed takes on more of the characteristic of real estate rather than equipment.

[pog]

Vaguely I recall that Fotomat got (or unsuccessfully tried to get?) its mall-parking-lot kiosks--about the size of a 10x12 shed--classified as sec. 38 property eligible for the ITC. As such wouldn't they be eligible for sec. 179?

(Just tossing out a straw to grasp, if you care to research it.)

[Black Bart]

In for a penny, in for a pound.

Well... if you didnt mean to be SARCASTIC. What exactly did you mean to be? She also called it a SHED and my definition of a shed is something that MAY be portable. Comments like yours are exactly why I do not respond to many posts on here. In any event I hope the ORIGINAL poster got his/her answer. Best luck to all this tax season.

First, of course, I'd do whatever I wanted to do. Even if they do catch you they can't hang you too high for the tax on that reindeer (beg pardon--I mean storage shed--the dirty, rotten, low-down, inexcrupulous Armando Beaujolais isn't the only one on this board with a sarcastic streak). Still, we all draw the line somewhere--last year a guy asked me to claim EIC for a nephew--said kid lived with Sis but she didn't need him and he did--justification: "I need the money." I had to holler "Whoa, Rudolph" on that one. Now, having said all that, it seems clear this is 39 year stuff and Beau (nag, nag, nag) is right as usual.

Say, Beau: Unregistered may have a point. He feels just like those Apple Computer corporate officers who once kicked Steve Jobs off the board of directors and told him, in essence, that they hadn't liked the way he had run the company ever since he (chuckle-chuckle) founded the company. Kinda tough bein' the voice of conscience nowadays, ain't it? Especially now that right's become wrong and wrong's become right (hmm...wonder if I look long enough that black will turn grayish and finally fade to white?). But don't feel too bad--actually, comments like yours are exactly why I do respond to many posts on here.

There is no pillow so soft as a clear conscience.--FRENCH PROVERB

[Black Bart]

Single Purpose Storage Building

I know this is not a farm building, but there could be a principle that might help. Single purposes agricultural and horticultural structures have a 10 year life, and qualify for Section 179. Farm buildings, other than single purpose structures, have a 20 year life and do not qualify for Section 179.

I believe the principle here is that rather than argue size of a structure, you have to look at its purpose. A single purpose structure could be larger than a house. But it is designed more as a piece of equipment that has a specific function rather than a real estate structure. Given that concept, a small storage shed takes on more of the characteristic of real estate rather than equipment.

Say Bees--whaddaya think about this "hot" idea for this hot topic? My father-in-law has a small lot and raises garden produce on it every year (tomatoes, radishes, turnpips--all that stuff). What if, instead of giving most of it to the freeloading neighbor, he puts a cardtable on the sidewalk out front and sells it to passersby. He's now a farmer with a profit motive--right? Now, he bought a backyard storage shed for $800 last year to keep his garden tiller, weedeater, lawn mower, and gas can in. Next, he has a sort of "turn row" (a small buffer zone) all around the edge of the garden plot which he cuts and trims the grass off of with the mower/weedeater (oh, alright--10% biz use for those two).

Suppose I get him to take the 1001 other pieces of junk he's got in the shed and put them out in the rain. Now he's a farmer with a single-purpose storage facility--right? Okay for 179 now? Or does he have to put the garden equipment out in the rain too and fill it up with turnips?

Your diagnosis, if you please.

[Bees Knees]

Suppose I get him to take the 1001 other pieces of junk he's got in the shed and put them out in the rain. Now he's a farmer with a single-purpose storage facility--right? Okay for 179 now? Or does he have to put the garden equipment out in the rain too and fill it up with turnips?

Your diagnosis, if you please.

I'd say your father-in-law would probably say you are crazy if you think he's going to let everything soak in the rain for a lousy $800 Section 179 deduction.

[Unregistered]

Reindeer used for business are taxed as personal property.