Depreciation taxon rental property

[Paul Kang]

Hello I have a tax question on a rental property. I’ve been hearing and reading mixed answers so I wanted to post it here. Here is my situation.

I have a rental property in california. It’s only been 2nd year since i bought it and rented it out. The property is cash flow positive after the expenses. I didn’t depreciate the property thinking I would’ve move in and my cpa advise me not to because I would have to pay recapture tax (25% at sale) if I depreciated and not pay depreciation if I didn’t. After talking to my friends with rental properties, they have told me that no matter what, I will pay depreciation recapture tax because IRS will treat it as if I had depreciated the property.

So my question is do I still have to pay depreciation recapture even if I didn’t depreciate the property at the sale of the property? If it is, I was going to amend my tax if it is beneficial for me. By the way, I’m on 25% tax bracket.