Property fundamentals
Depreciation Period
27.5 years for residential rentals (IRS standard); 39 years for commercial. Determines annual non-cash depreciation deduction.
Why Depreciation Period matters
Depreciation is a non-cash deduction, not a promised current tax saving. Basis allocation, placed-in-service conventions, personal use, passive-activity, basis, at-risk, and sale rules can change when or whether the modeled deduction reduces tax.
How to check Depreciation Period before you rely on it
Confirm with your tax professional that the property is residential rental property for tax purposes and the date it is placed in service, because the period and the first-year convention follow from those facts. Separate the land from the building, since land is not depreciated. Then treat the annual deduction as a modeling input: it lowers taxable income on paper, and whether it lowers your tax this year depends on passive-activity, basis, and at-risk rules.
Related terms
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Where Depreciation Period shows up in TrueCap
Property fundamentals are the facts you enter or confirm about the building itself — price, units, bedrooms, square footage — and the analyzer keeps them separate from assumptions. They decide which benchmarks apply (a 3-bedroom rent benchmark, for example) and appear at the top of every results view and memo so the reader knows exactly what was analyzed.