Recapture of Depreciation

[gradymillr]

We purchased our primary residence in 1992.  In 2010 we took job transfers and rented out our home until we sold it in 2025, having purchased another home as our primary residence in 2010.  We only depreciated the rental property from 2010 through 2025.  While we have owned the property for 33 years, it has only been depreciated 15 of those years.  When we file our 2025 taxes, do we recapture depreciation for 15 years as a rental property or do we include all 33 years of owning the property.  It was not clear in researching this.

[AmeliesUncle]

15 years.

The gain due to depreciation is based on the greater of (a) the actual depreciation that you took and (b) the amount of depreciation that you were eligible to take.

Unless you mistakenly took too much depreciation, you were only eligible to take 15 years of depreciation, so that is what your gain due to depreciation is based on (for real estate, it is actually called "Unrecaptured Section 1250 Gain", not "recapture").