Depreciation on rental property

[scott56]

What is the name of your state? Indiana

I own a duplex and rent out one side. On my federal taxes I have used the 27 year depreciation plan.
Due to the rental being vacant for two months plus damages by the previous tenant, I will show very little profit for 2007 and will not necessarily get a big tax advantage by using the depreciation.
Can I choose not to take the depreciation deduction this year and then start using it again next year?
In other words, can I skip just one year in taking the depreciation deduction on the rental?

Thank you very much.

[tranquility]

No. Depreciation must be taken.

[abezon]

You'll have to recapture the depreciation whether you claim it or not. However, you could elect to capitalize other deductible expenses, like the taxes, insurance, or mortgage interest.

[tranquility]

You'll have to recapture the depreciation whether you claim it or not.

I choose to answer the way I did because a discussion on depreciation was not what I wanted. Here is the problem, one "recaptures" depreciation on the sale of the property. However, according to Rev. Proc. 2007-16 one can change one's accounting method on the sale. This Rev. Proc. changed the method which was spelled out in Rev. Proc. 2002-9, as modified by Rev. Proc. 2004--11 where a taxpayer who sold depreciable property without claiming any depreciation or all of the depreciation allowable may claim the depreciation by filing Form 3115 for the year of sale. Thus negating the disadvantage of recapturing depreciation not taken.

However, except for this proceedure, a person need the permission of the commissioner to change their accounting method (including the method of computing depreciation). That means one would need to go through a big ol' darn deal process to *re-start* taking depreciation if one has not taken the depreciation for two years to get that permission. Even then, the process is not mandatory in that the IRS must agree to it. It would look to see if the government's interests were hurt as one of the criteria.

The code on depreciable real property tells the method one takes to depreciate it. The code does not list it as an option, but uses terms like "is depreciated" and the like indicating a requirement to depreciate. Without a search I can't be sure, but I bet a person not depreciating income property would, in an audit, be required to do so.

All that is to come back to my simplistic answer. Abezon is correct. But I felt by giving a practical reason the OP would consider the calculation rather than just follow the law.