Property improvements on rental properties - does remodeling refer to landscaping costs, or just improvements to the structure of the house?

[view2]

Improvements to the structure of the house are deprecation 27.5 yeas.

Land is not depreciated , land improvements are a 15 year property.

Examples of land improvements include sidewalks, driveways, curbs,  fences, and landscaping,

You have to make the correct selection in the program.

At the property asset summary screen for your property; click add an asset..Answer question to set up properly in the tax program

X rental  real estate property

X IMPROVEMENTS TO LAND

Then you have a 15 year improvement 

[pbsm1957]

improvements major sidewalks landscaping 2018

[SweetieJean]

@pbsm1957 and your question is?

[Carl]

Sidewalks is a 15-year property. Landscaping, such as the removal of trees, leveling of the land and the such are land improvements that do not get depreciated, but are added to the cost basis of the land.

So when entering those types of landscaping costs, you classify it as residential rental real estate and the amounts in the COST box and the COST OF LAND box will be exactly the same. That way, it adds to your cost basis but does not get depreciated since those type of land improvements are not supposed to be depreciated.

Now if things like land leveling and tree removal were required for installation/upgrade of the sidewalk, then that makes it "a part of" the sidewalk upgrade/installation. It all gets classified together as 15-year property and the total cost is depreciated over 15 years.