Depreciation and tax deduction questions

[Margaret Jay]

Some questions for investment property: 

1) when you buy a house, does the 'clock' on the 27.5 years start over, regardless of when the previous owners bought it?

2) what is a ballpark building vs. land ratio to use when trying to trip out the building value on the overall purchase price (example: if buying a $100k property, what % is typically building vs. land)

3) Can you include improvements/enhancements made onto the building value in depreciation?

Thank you in advance

[Natalie Kolodij]

Originally posted by @Margaret Jay:

Thank you all. If you bought a property that generates a cash flow LOSS each year, but you realize a capital GAIN upon sale, I assume you still need to calculate capital gain taxes WITH depreciation recapture? i.e the IRS doesn't care how how loss making the property (from a yearly cash flow perspective) when calculative capital gains taxes

You will either get to deduct that loss each year (If your AGI is under $150k)

Or when you sell it those losses generated that couldn't be deducted when your income is too high become available so they'll offset that gain.