J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax 2013: For Preparing Your 2012 Tax Return

42.4 MACRS Recovery Periods

Depreciable assets other than buildings fall within a three-, five-, seven-, 10-, 15-, or 20-year recovery period under the general depreciation system (GDS).

Straight-line recovery for buildings is claimed over a period of 27.5 years for residential rental property or 39 years for nonresidential real property (42.13).

Note: The actual write-off period of depreciation for an asset is one year longer than the class life because of the convention rules (42.5–42.7).

Three-year property.

This class includes property with a class life of four years or less, other than cars and light-duty trucks, which are in the five-year class.

This class includes: special handling devices for the manufacture of food and beverages; special tools and devices for the manufacture of rubber products; special tools for the manufacture of finished plastic products, fabricated metal products, or motor vehicles; and breeding hogs. By law, racehorses of any age and other horses more than 12 years old when placed in service are also in the three-year class.

Five-year property.

This class includes property with a class life of more than four years and less than 10 years such as computers (42.10), typewriters, copiers, duplicating equipment, heavy general-purpose trucks, trailers, cargo containers, and trailer-mounted containers. Also included by law in the five-year class are cars, light-duty trucks (actual unloaded weight less than 13,000 pounds), taxis, buses, computer-based telephone ...