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The Global Insight

How do I know how much depreciation on rental property?

Author

Sarah Garza

Updated on March 09, 2026

To calculate the annual amount of depreciation on a property, you divide the cost basis by the property’s useful life. In our example, let’s use our existing cost basis of $206,000 and divide by the GDS life span of 27.5 years. It works out to being able to deduct $7,490.91 per year or 3.6% of the loan amount.

Do you lose depreciation on rental property?

Rental property owners use depreciation to deduct the purchase price and improvement costs from your tax returns. By convention, most U.S. residential rental property is depreciated at a rate of 3.636% each year for 27.5 years. Only the value of buildings can be depreciated; you cannot depreciate land.

How do I claim missed depreciation on rental property?

If you forgot to claim depreciation to which you were entitled, you have up to three years to fix the problem by filing an amended return. Amended returns, like the 1040X for personal taxes or 1120X for the corporate income tax, let you go back and correct errors on your original return.

What if I never took depreciation on my rental property?

You should have claimed depreciation on your rental property since putting it on the rental market. If you did not, when you sell your rental home, the IRS requires that you recapture all allowable depreciation to be taxed (i.e. including the depreciation you did not deduct).

What happens if I don’t take depreciation on rental property?

However, not depreciating your property will not save you from the tax – the IRS levies it on the depreciation that you should have claimed, whether or not you actually did. With this in mind, depreciating your property doesn’t hurt you when you sell it, but it really helps you while you own it.

What do you need to know about depreciation on rental property?

Depreciation on rental property is the process used to deduct the costs of buying and improving said rental property. It differs from other expenses in the sense that real estate depreciation spreads these costs across the useful life of the property.

When do you depreciate the life of a property?

This useful life is more than a year. If it isn’t, you’d typically deduct the entire cost as a regular rental expense. In addition to depreciating the cost of the property, you can also depreciate the money used on property improvements. An improvement differs from regular repairs.

How does depreciation recapture affect real estate investors?

Rental property depreciation recapture is the gain that the real estate investor receives from selling the investment property, and it must be reported as income to the IRS. This can hurt an investor because it’s additional income that you have to pay taxes on based on your ordinary tax rate, which can be in addition to capital gains tax.

What can you deduct from rental income on taxes?

You can deduct any rental expenses from your rental income, which will lower your tax liability. These rental expenses include repair and maintenance, property taxes, mortgage insurance, property management expenses, and so on. However, there is one more key tax deduction- rental property depreciation.