mercredi 26 novembre 2014

Knowing All About Cost Segregation

By Christa Jarvis


When it comes to taxation, there are a lot of rules and regulation under the law that one would have to follow. Of course this does not mean that there are no loopholes that one can make use of in order to lessen taxes under the law legally. If one is an owner of a building, there is one concept known as cost segregation that he can use in order to significantly lessen taxes.

Now in a nutshell, it is the process of segregating personal property assets that are considered real property assets from personal assets. This is a requirement that is done for tax reporting purposes. This is usually done by expert taxation accountants who are good in handling property assets.

Now if one would go through this process, most people would ask exactly what he will do. Well the main goal of this process is to simply decrease the depreciation time for the property assets. This in turn would actually help lessen the taxes of the property owner.

Now when one would talk about personal property assets, this would include the land improvements, construction costs, and the building itself. Of course the experts would have to identify the costs that have to do with construction. From there, these items can actually be depreciated in the books for tax purposes.

Now some of the costs that can be depreciated would actually be the building costs which can be depreciated over either a 27.5 year or 39 year period. There are other costs that can also be depreciated like utilities costs which can be depreciated to seven or even up to fifteen years. Of course the expert will be able to find more costs that may fit the category but these are the ones that are usually handled.

Now before the expert would go through this process, he will first be working hand in hand with the engineer. He would first have to go through the blueprints of the building and will have the engineer identify all things that had to be done to the building. From there, the expert will be segregating these costs and will start going over what the things are that can be depreciated over a time period.

He will have to be performing an engineering study on the components of the building which means that he would at least have to have some experience when dealing with buildings. First, he will have to be dealing with the walls, floors, ceilings, and everything else that was added to these parts. He would then also have to deal with the utilities that were added like water, electricity and telecommunications.

Now it is from this analysis that the experts will then be able to create the report wherein the taxes will be lessened. Now it is because of accelerated depreciation wherein the taxes were actually lessened. Now one great thing that would come out from this practice would be that one will be having the opportunity to be able to see what his real estate liabilities are and then he can actually be able to lessen those liabilities.




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