With depreciation recapture, why depreciate an asset at all?

[Account Closed]

I'm not going pretend that I understand anything about how the tax side of things work, but I was reading this article the other day by Michael Plaks (not sure how to tag people, sorry).

https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

One of the things that caught was the topic of depreciation recapture.  Since you will be paying taxes by depreciation recapture, why choose to depreciate at all? Because in a way, if you are depreciating, you are betting that you overall tax owed will be less when it's time for depreciation recapture, right? Besides owing less in taxes, prior to depreciation recapture, is there any advantage for depreciating an asset?

[Josh Young]

@Account Closed just type the @ sign and then start typing the name. The IRS is the reason why you need to depreciate, they will make you recapture even if you don't take the depreciation expense, that's the biggest reason, but it's also beneficial because of inflation, the future money you are paying the tax with is worth less than today's money, and you never need to pay the recapture if you do a 1031 exchange and just kick the can down the road until you die and then your kids will get a step up in basis. If you need capital you should do a cash out refinance instead of selling, it's tax free money and you still own the asset, it adds leverage and gives you liquidity.