Rental property

Rental property depreciation calculator

Estimate the 27.5-year MACRS depreciation deduction for a residential rental building. Enter the purchase price, land value, and the month you placed the property in service. The percentages are the official IRS mid-month table.

This is an estimate, not tax advice. It applies only to the residential rental building under the 27.5-year General Depreciation System table. It does not depreciate land, personal property, or land improvements, and it does not apply bonus depreciation, section 179, cost segregation, or recapture. Confirm the deduction with Publication 946, Publication 527, Form 4562, or a qualified tax professional.
Land is not depreciable. Use a reasonable allocation, such as the assessor’s land portion of the total.
Optional. Closing costs or improvements that are properly added to the building, not the land.
The mid-month convention treats any day in the month as the middle of that month. For a 2026 purchase, this is the 2026 tax year.

How this estimate is figured

  1. Depreciable basis = purchase price − land value + costs you added to the building’s basis.
  2. Year 1 depreciation = basis × the Table A-6 percentage for the month placed in service. January is 3.485%; December is 0.152%.
  3. Later years use the same table. Most full years are 3.636% (3.637% in some years so each column totals 100%). Property placed in service from January through June finishes in year 28; July through December finishes in year 29.

Table A-6 year 1 percentages

Month placed in serviceYear 1 percentage
January3.485%
February3.182%
March2.879%
April2.576%
May2.273%
June1.970%
July1.667%
August1.364%
September1.061%
October0.758%
November0.455%
December0.152%

First five years of the schedule

YearPercentageDeductionCumulative

Nonresidential real property (for example, an office or retail building that is not residential rental property) is generally recovered over 39 years and is not calculated here. See Publication 946, Table A-7a.

Official IRS sources

Track rent, expenses, and the year that feeds Schedule E

The Rental Tracker ($12) is a spreadsheet for rental income, expenses, and Schedule E totals over the year. This page only estimates building depreciation.

Get the Rental Tracker on Gumroad Or buy it on Payhip

Frequently asked questions

What is depreciable basis?

For a typical purchase, start with the purchase price, subtract the part of the price that is land (land is not depreciable), and add closing costs or improvements that are properly added to the building’s basis. This calculator does that arithmetic from the numbers you enter. Allocation between land and building should follow a reasonable method (for example, the tax assessor’s land/improvement split). It is not an appraisal.

Why 27.5 years and the mid-month convention?

Residential rental buildings placed in service after 1986 are generally depreciated under MACRS over 27.5 years, straight line, with the mid-month convention. You treat the building as placed in service in the middle of the month, whatever the actual day. The official percentages are in IRS Publication 946, Table A-6, and are also summarized in Publication 527. This page uses those table percentages.

What if I place the property in service in July or later?

You still use Table A-6. The first-year percentage is smaller, and the last amount falls in year 29 instead of year 28. For example, a January placement uses 3.485% in year 1 and finishes in year 28; a July placement uses 1.667% in year 1 and finishes in year 29.

Does this include appliances, land improvements, or a cost-segregation study?

No. Those items can have shorter recovery periods (for example, five- or 15-year property) and different conventions. A cost-segregation study is a separate analysis. This calculator only estimates depreciation of the residential rental building itself under the 27.5-year table.

What about bonus depreciation or section 179?

This tool does not apply bonus depreciation or a section 179 deduction. A residential rental building itself is generally not eligible for those in the way shorter-lived property may be. Confirm current law and your facts with Publication 946, the Form 4562 instructions, or a qualified tax professional.

Is this my Schedule E deduction?

No. It is an estimate of the building depreciation using the IRS percentage table. Your return must also consider the date you placed the property in service, any personal use, improvements placed in service in other years, dispositions, and recapture when you sell. See Publication 527 and Form 4562.