HomeReplacementWindows.net

i have a rental property and i had replacement windows installed. write off or depreciate over how many years?

Public Comments

1. Consider expensing it. Depreciation is over 27.5 years. Also you will need a depreciation schedule because of a few quirks in the depreciation law. Actually I bet they would accept your expensing it for a number of reasons. I believe that a capital improvement under $5,000 can be expensed. IRS has some booklets they put out on this question. Be sure you get the right depreciation schedule.


2. The cost of replacement including the cost of the windows themselves will form part of the basis of the property. So if you paid $100,000 to purchase the property and it cost $8,000 to replace the windows you now have a basis of $108,000. This will help you when you sell the property because you will not have as much in capital gains tax.

   On the other hand if some of the windows were in bad repair and you repaired them you would claim that as maintenance expense on the Schedule E.

   In the first case you would depreciate the cost of the windows over the usual 27.5 years which is the same as the house itself. I don't think you could depreciate them as a 179.