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February 24, 2020
Question

How to deduct new air conditioning install

  • February 24, 2020
  • 1 reply
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Hi. I have a home office that is 10% of my house. I recently installed new air conditioning (there was no previous air conditioning) meant to cool the entire home. The total cost was about $8000, and now I am confused as to whether I should depreciate this or consider it as part of the "Safe Harbor Election for Small Tax Payers". Does anyone know the appropriate way to handle this?

1 reply

DaveF1006
February 24, 2020

First of all, you cannot consider this as a safe harbor election for depreciating assets unless the cost was $2500 or less. You can depreciate a portion of it for home office depreciation. According to this Turbo Tax link, you would have to depreciate it over 27.5 years and then you could depreciate 10%v of that. In this case, ($8000 / 27.5)(.10)= $29 per year you can deduct as a home office expense. 

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Jjs041975Author
February 24, 2020

@Opus 17 seems to suggest here: https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/tax-credits-deductions/discussion/what-options-do-i-have-in-home-office-deductions-for-a-new-ac-heat-unit-for-my-home-to-replace-a/00/46293 that "If the total cost is more than $2500 but the business share is less than $2500, you might qualify to use the $2500 safe harbor to expense it all at once, I would expect turbotax to let you know.". That's the case I'm interested in. Could you elaborate on that please?