Land vs. Improvement Values

[John K.]

I got a good one here. I'm going to use some easy numbers.

I purchased a duplex for $200,000 in July. The prior owners had the property forever and it was assessed at a total of $150,000, $50,000 towards land, and $100,000 towards improvements.

I took the values with my accountant at the time: 33% is land, 66% is improvements. So I can depreciate $133,333 as improvements ($200,000 x 66.6%).

Jump forward 9 months (now), the county got around to updating their website with the assessment values of our purchase (they are just REALLY REALLY slow), they now say that the land is worth $50,000 and the improvements are worth $150,000. They didn't adjust the land basis and say that all of the increase is towards improvements. Naturally I want the extra $16,667 in depreciation over 27.5 years.

My accountant said option 1 would be to re-file last years taxes with correct amount. I'm not a big fan of refiling since we are a multi-member llc and it would be a big mess for everyone. I saw online you can file IRS form 3115, does anyone have experience with a situation like this in changing the depreciation amounts?