Did You Repair Your Business Property or Improve It?
A person holds a pen, drawing an upward-trending line on a transparent screen with various colored bar and line graphs in the background, symbolizing business property maintenance and growth through diligent data analysis.

Repairs to tangible property, such as buildings, machinery, equipment or vehicles, can provide
businesses a valuable current tax deduction — as long as the so-called repairs weren’t
actually “improvements.”

The costs of incidental repairs and maintenance can be immediately expensed and deducted
on the current year’s income tax return. But costs incurred to improve tangible property must
be capitalized and recovered through depreciation.

Betterment, Restoration, or Adaptation

Generally, a cost must be depreciated if it results in an improvement to a building structure
or any of its systems (for example, the plumbing or electrical system), or to other tangible
property. An improvement occurs if there was a betterment, restoration or adaptation of the
unit of property.

Under the “betterment test,” you generally must depreciate amounts paid for work that is
reasonably expected to materially increase the productivity, efficiency, strength, quality or
output of a unit of property or that is a material addition to a unit of property.
Under the “restoration test,” you generally must depreciate amounts paid to replace a part
(or combination of parts) that is a major component or a significant portion of the physical
structure of a unit of property.

Under the “adaptation test,” you generally must depreciate amounts paid to adapt a unit of
property to a new or different use — one that isn’t consistent with your ordinary use of the
unit of property at the time you originally placed it in service.

Safe Harbors
A couple of IRS safe harbors can help distinguish between repairs and improvements:
    1. Routine maintenance safe harbor. Recurring activities dedicated to keeping property in efficient operating condition can be expensed. These are activities that your business reasonably expects to perform more than once during the property’s “class life,” as defined by the IRS. Amounts incurred for activities outside the safe harbor don’t necessarily have to be depreciated, though. These amounts are subject to analysis under the general rules for improvements.
    2. Small business safe harbor. For buildings that initially cost $1 million or less, qualified
      small businesses may elect to deduct the lesser of $10,000 or 2% of the unadjusted basis of
      the property for repairs, maintenance, improvements and similar activities each year. A qualified
      small business is generally one with gross receipts of $10 million or less.

Some business-related entertainment expenses may still be deductible, but only in very limited
circumstances (such as when entertainment is presented at an event open to the public).

More to learn

To learn more about these safe harbors and other ways to maximize your tangible property
deductions, contact us.

 

This information presented is for illustrative and informational purposes only. Articles are copyright of the respective publication and not for distribution. FB+D by Cerity Partners is not responsible for and does not endorse content on third party sites.

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