Accountant is using a weird depreciation method, is he right?

[Jack B.]

He tells me the appraised amount of the structure (not including land, just the house) divided by 27.5 is NOT the depreciation method.

He said the purchase price is my  basis and that...

Depreciable basis = basis * land value percentage.

Land value % = appraised land value when the rental was put into service divided by appraised total value when put into service. 

Is he right??

[Ashish Acharya]

Originally posted by @Jack B.:

Originally posted by @Ashish Acharya:

@Jack B. , 

First of all, 

"Land value % = appraised land value when the rental was put into service divided by appraised total value when put into service." That is not right. You only use appraised value if the FMV of the property was less than the adjusted basis of the property. I do not think that is the case as the RE market is good.

If you ignore that mistake, with his calculation, he is determining the basis of the land (Depreciable basis = basis * land value percentage.).  The depreciable basis of the property will be total adjusted basis - his " depreciable basis". 

@Jack B. ,  Consistence with my reply to an earlier post, I think it is worth extending you return man. You dont owe any more tax with the extension. 

You're right. The FMV was higher than the tax assessors appraisal. So what I'm hearing is that this guy is wrong after all? Ashish I wish you would take me as a client, you're the only accountant I've ever talked to that actually knows what he is doing...

 Thanks for the kind word but we have many qualified and much more experienced accountants here.  As I have told you before, 

I mostly work with a business returns, but I highly recommend working with any of these guys. @Michael Plaks, @Basit Siddiqi, @Nicholas Aiola , @Logan Allec , @Lance Lvovsky and few more.