Which Recovery Period Applies? Words you may need to know (see Glossary): Active conduct of a trade or business Basis Improvement Listed property Nonresidential real property Placed in service Property class Recovery period Residential rental property Section 1245 property The recovery period of property is the number of years over which you recover its cost or other basis. It is determined based on the depreciation system (GDS or ADS) used. Recovery Periods Under GDS Under GDS, property that is not qualified Indian reservation property is depreciated over one of the following recovery periods. Property Class Recovery Period 3-year property 3 years 1 5-year property 5 years 7-year property 7 years 10-year property 10 years 15-year property 15 years 2 20-year property 20 years 25-year property 25 years 3 Residential rental property 27.5 years Nonresidential real property 39 years 4 15 years for qualified rent-to-own property placed in service before August 6, 1997. 239 years for property that is a retail motor fuels outlet placed in service before August 20, 1996 (31.5 years if placed in service before May 13, 1993), unless you elected to depreciate it over 15 years. 320 years for property placed in service before June 13, 1996, or under a binding contract in effect before June 10, 1996. 431.5-years for property placed in service before May 13, 1993 (or before January 1, 1994, if under a binding contract in effect before May 13, 1993, or if construction began before May 13, 1993). The GDS recovery periods for property not listed above can be found in Appendix B, Table of Class Lives and Recovery Periods. Residential rental property and nonresidential real property are defined earlier under Which Property Class Applies Under GDS. Office in the home. If you begin to use part of your home as an office, depreciate that part of your home as nonresidential real property over 39 years (31.5 years if you began using it for business before May 13, 1993). See Publication 587 for a discussion of the tests you must meet to claim expenses, including depreciation, for the business use of your home. Home changed to rental use. If you begin to rent a home that was your personal home before 1987, you depreciate it as residential rental property over 27.5 years. Indian Reservation Property The recovery periods for qualified property you placed in service on an Indian reservation after 1993 and before 2004 are shorter than those listed earlier. The following table shows these shorter recovery periods. Property Class Recovery Period 3-year property  2 years 5-year property  3 years 7-year property  4 years 10-year property  6 years 15-year property  9 years 20-year property 12 years Nonresidential real property 22 years Nonresidential real property is defined earlier under Which Property Class Applies Under GDS. Qualified property. Property eligible for the shorter recovery periods are 3-, 5-, 7-, 10-, 15-, and 20-year property and nonresidential real property. You must use this property predominantly in the active conduct of a trade or business within an Indian reservation. Real property you rent to others that is located on an Indian reservation is also eligible for the shorter recovery periods. The following property is not qualified property. Property used or located outside an Indian reservation on a regular basis, other than qualified infrastructure property. Property acquired directly or indirectly from a related person. Property placed in service for purposes of conducting or housing class I, II, or III gaming activities. (These activities are defined in section 4 of the Indian Regulatory Act (25 U.S.C. 2703).) Any property you must depreciate under ADS. Determine whether property is qualified without regard to the election to use ADS and after applying the special rules for listed property not used predominantly for qualified business use (discussed in chapter 4). Qualified infrastructure property. Item (1) above does not apply to qualified infrastructure property located outside the reservation that is used to connect with qualified infrastructure property within the reservation. Qualified infrastructure property is property that meets all the following rules. It is qualified property, as defined earlier, except that it is outside the reservation. It benefits the tribal infrastructure. It is available to the general public. It is placed in service in connection with the active conduct of a trade or business within a reservation. Infrastructure property includes, but is not limited to, roads, power lines, water systems, railroad spurs, and communications facilities. Related person. For purposes of item (2) above, see the discussion on pre-1987-use property under Can You Use MACRS To Depreciate Your Property? in chapter 1 for a description of related persons. Indian reservation. The term "Indian reservation" means a reservation as defined in section 3(d) of the Indian Financing Act of 1974 (25 U.S.C. 1452(d)) or section 4(10) of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (25 U.S.C. 1903(10)). For a definition of the term "former Indian reservations in Oklahoma" as used in section 3(d) of the Indian Financing Act of 1974, see Notice 98-45 in Cumulative Bulletin 1998-2. Recovery Periods Under ADS The recovery periods for most property are generally longer under ADS than they are under GDS. The following table shows some of the ADS recovery periods. Property Recovery Period Rent-to-own property  4 years Automobiles and light duty trucks  5 years Computers and peripheral equipment  5 years High technology telephone station equipment installed on customer premises  5 years High technology medical equipment  5 years Personal property with no class life 12 years Single purpose agricultural and horticultural structures 15 years Any tree or vine bearing fruit or nuts 20 years Nonresidential real property 40 years Residential rental property 40 years Section 1245 real property not listed in Appendix B 40 years Railroad grading and tunnel bore 50 years The ADS recovery periods for property not listed above can be found in the tables in Appendix B. Rent-to-own property, residential rental property, and nonresidential real property are defined earlier under Which Property Class Applies Under GDS. Additions and Improvements An addition or improvement you make to depreciable property is treated as separate depreciable property. (See How Do You Treat Improvements? in chapter 1.) Its property class and recovery period are the same as those that would apply to the original property if you had placed it in service at the same time you placed the addition or improvement in service. The recovery period begins on the later of the following dates. The date you place the addition or improvement in service. The date you place in service the property to which you made the addition or improvement. Example. You own a rental home that you have been renting out since 1981. If you put an addition on the home and place the addition in service this year, you would use MACRS to figure your depreciation deduction for the addition. Under GDS, the property class for the addition is residential rental property and its recovery period is 27.5 years because the home to which the addition is made would be residential rental property if you had placed it in service this year.