What is better: higher depreciation or property tax bill

[Wei Cho]

Hello!

I was researching how to calculate depreciation on my first duplex that I bought and I was browsing through the county assessor website and noticed that my land value is $250k and the improvement value is $28k. Which I thought was odd because the structure seems in good condition. Upon researching, I saw that the improvement value dropped from $154k in 2010 to $25k in 2012 (when there was a change in ownership), and the land value stayed roughly the same (around $200k). I checked on my neighbors land vs improvement value and generally it seems like their improvement value is higher than their land value.

I haven’t called the assessors office to dispute that because I want to know what makes more sense: to depreciate more on my taxes or to increase my property tax bill.

If I understand correctly, depreciation is roughly improvement  / land value * purchase price? Then divide by 27.5 years. This brings me roughly around $2800 or depreciation a year. Is this too little? I saw on another post that a member suggested to speak to the county assessor to get that straightened out because I am improving the property as well. But then I thought, if I dispute it, it could bring my property taxes up (0.79% assessed value in CA).

Should I try to dispute the improvement vs land value or just leave it as is? 

Thanks!