New Roof on Home and Home-Based Business: Asset Type and Recovery Period

[ay]

I work from home.  We replaced home roof and porch roof this summer (FYI: I take pictures of my merchandise outside under the porch roof). 

This is my understanding so far:

1) New roof is an asset, not repair.

2) My home office portion of home is regarded as nonresidential real property and recovery period is 39 years.

My questions is:

1) Is portion of the new roof also considered nonresidential real property?  If so, is the recovery period still 39 years?  I ask this because the shingles used on the home roof has a lifespan of 30 years.

2) I've been using part of my home as office since November, 2006, which is being depreciated for the past 9 years.  Since the roof is part of the house, do I need to somehow deduct (?)  9+ years from the recovery period of the roof so that the house and roof have the same recovery periods?  (Probably not, but I'll ask anyway!)

3) Is MACRS the correct depreciation type?  What are the proper type of asset and depreciation method?

[Coleen3 · Accepted solution]

Your understanding is good.

1)Yes, the IRS doesn't look at the property according to what the manufacturer says.

2) The 39 years starts when you begin depreciating the improvement. Yes, they both have the same.

3) It is MACRS officially, but it is depreciated more like Straight Line for real estate. Just indicate that it is an improvement to the house and TT should take care of it for you.