Will Congress Legislate Depreciation Changes on Leasehold Improvements?
CCIM wants Congress to Change rules for leasehold improvements and 39yr deprecation. The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 put in place a 15-year depreciable life for all real property that was placed into service on or after the 31st of December 1980. Any property that was placed into serviced after March 15, 1984 was extended to 18 years, three years more than the original recovery period that the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 had put into place. Also, for any property that had been placed into service after May 8, 1985 the depreciable life was 19 years. In 1986, there was a new tax reform act put into place changed the depreciation rules yet again, changing it to 31 ½ years for commercial property and 27 ½ years for residential property. Of course this was not destined to be in place for long at all; in 1993 the rules were changed yet again and the depreciable life for commercial property was changed to 39 years, and the depreciable life of residential property remained the same
