Carl
Level 15

Investors & landlords

Generally, amortized items are intangible assets; things you can see or physically touch. For example, when you purchased the property you may have paid "points" at the closing. Points are basically just pre-paid interest you paid "up front" in order to get an overall lower interest rate over the life of the loan. Now you already know that interest is deductible. But interest paid of front (points) aren't fully deductible in the year you pay. They get deducted over the life of the loan. If you have a 15 year loan and you paid $3000 in points, that amount would be amortized (not capitalized) and deducted (not depreciated) over the life of the loan.

An amortized asset is a permanent deduction. Whereas a capitalized asset is not.

With an amortized asset, if not fully deducted when you sell the property (because you sold the property before you paid off the loan) then any remaining amount to be amortized/deducted is fully deductible in the year of the sale. So for the difference:

Capitalized Assets are depreciated over the MACRS life expectancy of that asset. Depreciation is recaptured and taxed when you sell that asset.

Amortized Assets are a permanent deduction spread out over time. Typically, an amortized asset is "intangible", meaning that's it's something you can't see, touch, taste, hear or smell. Of course, not all amortized assets are intangible. But I can't think of any examples of one right now.