Your building isn't one asset. It's hundreds.
A cost segregation study is an engineering exercise, not an accounting opinion. Someone counts the components, prices them, and sorts them by how long the tax code says they last. That sorting pulls roughly a fifth of your basis out of a 39-year schedule and into year one.
Flat 20% of depreciable basis · the floor for any class
Not depreciable
Personal property
Land improvements
Building shell
20% of $8M depreciable basis.
Bonus depreciation on the reclassified property.2
At 37%. About $652,800 where it also shelters income exposed to the 3.8% surtax.
Adjust assumptions
Directional only. Actual reclassification depends on construction type, vintage, finish level, and site improvements. This tells you whether a study is worth a phone call, nothing more.
Three steps. Only the middle one is hard.
Separate the land
Land never depreciates. Pull it out of the purchase price and what remains is your depreciable basis.
Break the building apart
Carpet, cabinetry, appliances, dedicated electrical, and millwork become 5- or 7-year personal property. Paving, fencing, site lighting, and landscaping become 15-year land improvements. The shell stays at 27.5 or 39.
Take the deduction
Anything with a recovery period of 20 years or less qualifies for bonus depreciation, currently 100%, deductible in the year the property is placed in service.
What a fifth of basis is worth
Held at the conservative floor: 20% land, 20% of remaining basis reclassified, 100% bonus, 37% marginal rate. Most asset classes come in higher.
| Purchase price | Depreciable basis | Reclassified & deducted | Federal tax deferred |
|---|---|---|---|
| $1M | $800,000 | $160,000 | $59,200 |
| $2.5M | $2,000,000 | $400,000 | $148,000 |
| $5M | $4,000,000 | $800,000 | $296,000 |
| $10M | $8,000,000 | $1,600,000 | $592,000 |
| $25M | $20,000,000 | $4,000,000 | $1,480,000 |
| $50M | $40,000,000 | $8,000,000 | $2,960,000 |
| $100M | $80,000,000 | $16,000,000 | $5,920,000 |
Per $1,000,000 of purchase price, from about $160,000 of first-year deduction. It scales linearly, so a $40M acquisition is a $2.4M conversation before anyone opens a drawing set.
A deduction is only worth what you can use
The size of the write-off is the easy part. Where it lands depends on how the ownership is structured and how you participate.
Non-cash by design
The property distributes normally and still reports a paper loss. You keep the cash and defer the tax on it.
Most investors are passive
Losses shelter this and other passive income. Anything unused suspends, carries forward, and releases in full at sale.
The 3.8% surtax follows
Net rental income is generally net investment income. For many owners the effective benefit is nearer 40.8% than 37%.
Deferred, not erased
Short-life gain recaptures at ordinary rates on sale. The value is time, rate differential, and exchange or step-up planning.³
You can look backward.
Assets placed in service in prior years can still be studied. A Form 3115 method change picks up every missed deduction in the current year, with no amended returns.
You can write off what you tear out.
A study establishes component-level basis, which enables partial asset disposition. Replace a roof or gut a unit and the old basis is deductible rather than stranded.
Finish level drives the number
The more a property behaves like equipment and site work rather than shell, the more reclassifies. Typical outcomes as a share of depreciable basis.⁴
Address to sealed report in two weeks
Feasibility is free. Nothing is billed until you've seen an estimated benefit for your specific asset.
Feasibility
Address, price, closing date. Estimated benefit back within 48 hours, no cost.
Documents
Closing statement, depreciation schedule, rent roll, plans and capex detail.
Field & takeoff
Site inspection with photo record, then engineering takeoff and cost allocation.
CPA review
Draft schedules to your accountant before anything is finalized.
Delivery
Sealed report, asset schedules by recovery period, audit support file.
An engineering report, built to be defended
- Engineering cost allocation to IRS Audit Techniques Guide methodology
- Component detail assigned to 5-, 7-, 15-, and 27.5-/39-year lives
- Site photography and dated inspection record
- Fixed asset schedules formatted for your CPA
- Form 3115 and §481(a) support for look-back studies
- Partial asset disposition schedules for renovation write-offs
- Methodology and legal support narrative
- Audit defense included, at no additional cost
It doesn't pencil for everyone
Better to hear it in ten minutes than after you've paid for a study.
Usually worth running
- Acquisition at $1M or more
- Hold of three years or longer
- Taxable ownership with passive income to shelter
- Value-add or renovation program underway
- Placed in service since 2019 and never studied
Usually doesn't
- Sale inside two years with no exchange planned
- Tax-exempt or non-taxpaying ownership
- No passive income and no path to using suspended losses
- Basis largely carried over from a prior exchange
- Basis under roughly $500,000
BV arranges it. Engineers produce it.
Studies offered through BV are prepared, sealed, and defended by [PARTNER], an independent national cost segregation engineering firm engaged as our strategic partner. BV does not perform engineering analysis, prepare tax returns, or provide tax, legal, or accounting advice.
Our role is origination and coordination. Every study is delivered under a written engagement naming the preparing firm and its scope, with fees quoted per asset after a no-cost feasibility review. Review any study and its consequences with your own CPA or tax counsel before relying on it.
Send one address and a closing date.
That's enough for a feasibility estimate, back within 48 hours. If the number isn't worth your time, we'll say so.
Request feasibility- Federal bonus depreciation is currently 100% for qualifying property with a recovery period of 20 years or less. Eligibility turns on acquisition and placed-in-service dates. Several states, including California, New York, and New Jersey, do not conform, so federal and state benefit can diverge. Confirm both with your CPA.
- The estimator applies bonus to the full reclassified amount. It does not net out the small first-year straight-line depreciation those components would otherwise generate, apply placed-in-service conventions, or model the remaining long-life basis. Immaterial at these scales to the decision of whether to study.
- Cost segregation defers tax; it does not eliminate it. On sale, gain attributable to §1245 personal property is generally recaptured at ordinary rates and unrecaptured §1250 gain is taxed at up to 25%.
- Reclassification percentages shown are typical planning ranges for feasibility screening. Actual results are determined solely by the engineering study.
Studies prepared by [PARTNER]. Informational only; not tax, legal, or accounting advice.