Apartment owners can face staggering expenses to maintain apartment communities. The upkeep of even a modest community could involve groundskeeping, unit renovation, and replacements, such as parking lot asphalt and fencing. Another steep expense is federal income tax – and in some areas an additional state tax on income – but through an innovative study known as cost segregation, the depreciation of property components can be used to help lower federal taxes.
Today, more apartment investors, especially those whose occupancy rates are challenged by the nation’s single-family housing, are taking a close look at every possible avenue to lower costs. That’s a frustrating task in the apartment business. One historically underused technique for saving money, in this case saving taxes, is to ensure that all depreciable items are reflected accurately on tax returns.
Those items are not limited to copiers, automobiles and heavy equipment. The list extends to a wide range of buildings and improvements. In fact, the IRS recognizes 130 items that depreciate over much shorter time periods than the standard depreciation of 27.5 years for an apartment...