Do these items add to home basis?

[Rocket J Squirrel]

It's common knowledge that replacing the roof of your house adds to its basis. What about these items?

• Replacing 2 34-year-old creaky wooden garage doors with modern steel doors with WiFi enabled openers
• Replacing all the, yes, 34-year-old landscape and hardscape around the house (to conserve water, improve fire safety, and modernize the appearance)

The garage doors are in the mid 4 figures, but the landscape/hardscape will be in the mid 6 figures (ouch). I believe these will add to the value of my home and considerably prolong its useful life.

I looked on irs.gov and couldn't find anything more informative than this in Pub 530:

Improvements.

An improvement materially adds to the value of your home, considerably prolongs its useful life, or adapts it to new uses. You must add the cost of any improvements to the basis of your home. You can't deduct these costs.

Improvements include putting a recreation room in your unfinished basement, adding another bathroom or bedroom, putting up a fence, putting in new plumbing or wiring, installing a new roof, and paving your driveway.

[Critter-3 · Accepted solution]

Those are both improvements to be listed as assets and depreciated  ... the landscaping is 15 year and the doors 27.5 on a residencial property.

[Rocket J Squirrel]

Thanks, @Critter-3. May I ask where to find that information?

[Critter-3]

PUB 946 ... Appendix  B starts on page 97

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p946.pdf

[rjs · Accepted solution]

@Rocket J Squirrel 

If this is your personal residence, you do not depreciate the improvements. You add the cost of the improvements to your basis when you sell the home. Critter-3 must have thought that you were asking about a home that you rent out to a tenant, not the home that you live in.

You can find a little more detail about improvements in Pub. 523. Look for "Improvements" in the index.

[Rocket J Squirrel]

I  knew these are not depreciable on my residence. Just wanted to verify they increase basis.

As long as I'm here, one more item to ask about: house painting. I will spend thousands to have my house power washed, primed, and painted. Does that increase basis?

[rjs]

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@Rocket J Squirrel wrote:

As long as I'm here, one more item to ask about: house painting. I will spend thousands to have my house power washed, primed, and painted. Does that increase basis?

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Sorry, no. That's maintenance.

[Rocket J Squirrel]

But if I paint the house a "better" color, that's an improvement, no? 😀