From: "olivia" 
Newsgroups: misc.invest.real-estate
Subject: Rental Property Depreciation for Current/Previous Year
Date: 20 Feb 2007 17:42:18 -0800
   posting-account=BUB5CQ0AAAAQKpinTOvSGfnezaopXSAg

I am a first time landlord and rented our previous home in
September-2005. When I filed my taxes last year, I did not depreciate.
My perception (or rather misunderstanding) was that if I claim
depreciation, that will be decreased from the cost basis of the
property and hence "reduce the buying price" and hence increase my
effective profit when I sell the property in future years, hence
increase my tax liability when I decide to sell the property. As it
turns out, I was wrong. Based on the information that I have read on
the internet, it seems that the depreciation will anyway be deducted
and taxed when I sell the property whether or not I have claimed it in
the past years or not. Please correct me if I am wrong here.
I have read some IRS publications regarding depreciation but have not
been able to get the answers that I need. I have the following
questions and would appreciate if you can either point me to a
resource, previous posts or please answer this question for me.
1. Is depreciation taxed when I sell the property even if I do not
claim it in previous years is correct or wrong?
2. Can I claim the depreciation for previous year (since I did not
claim it then)? In my case, the home was rented for only 4 months in
2005. If so, what form shoudl I be using to do that?
3. From previous question, if I am not able to claim the depreciation
for the previous year (2005), will it automatically be deducted from
cost basis when I sell the home in the future?
3. Is it actually better in some scenarios to not claim depreciation
and let it lower the cost basis in the year of sale to claim a lower
tax rate/liability then (if it indeed is lower, I am not sure)? I seem
to have read

I would appreciate any responses in this regard

Olivia