Depreciating new flooring before available for rent
I've been looking across the forum and am finding bits and pieces of info helpful to my situation, but I don't think I have the complete picture yet. Here is my situation and associated questions. Any help is GREATLY appreciated!
We bought a townhome back in 2016. Later, we moved and put the townhome up for rent in 2023. During that transition, I installed about 800 sq ft of flooring in the 2,000 sq ft property (previously vinyl sheet in the areas replaced). The total replacement cost was about $3,700. The work was completed before the property was available for rent, but after we had moved out. Here are my questions:
- Since the work was completed before made available for rent, and is over $2,500, do I have to capitalize and depreciate the cost?
- I'm seeing in the forum that LVP flooring has a depreciation period of 27.5 year!!?? Is that true? That seems crazy on such a 'small' project.
- If I deduct the depreciation for tax purposes, I can't add the flooring cost as an improvement to the cost basis when I sell the property down the road correct?