[creer]

You seem to be taking this all from the angle of a possible loophole. That's fine and all. But another way to look at it is:

Renting is a business. You can say let's tax gross income (and some places do that) but in general in the US only net income is taxed. That is income after costs. For renting there is the cost of the property, there is interest on various loans, there is the cost of maintenance and repairs, there is the cost of upgrades, there is utilities and local taxes, etc. For income there is the rent, and there is the proceeds from the sale of the property at the end, etc.

The cost of the property is a cost - that's hard to argue. The question would be how to take it into account. It's currently taken into account with depreciation (of the building, not the land for that matter.) A certain percentage every year goes against the income until it's fully depreciated. And then when the building is sold, the part of the cost that was depreciated is taxed (there is yet another calculation to decide at what rate it's taxed - depreciation reduced basis but "sale minus basis" does not necessarily get taxed at capital gains rate.)

The hows can get complicated but the general principle of "how to take into account the business costs" is pretty simple? And the building cost and maintenance are both costs. Doesn't really matter in there how long the building is supposed to last. It's a fairly arbitrary number in the calculation.

[If you do want to look at preferential treatment, you can look at "like kind exchange"]

[seadan83]

Thanks for the reply & pointers. My impression is that real estate simply has some of the best tax treatments. My assertion - the best tax treatments are for those that do not make wage income. For that to be true, there just needs to be far better tax breaks for someone who rents many properties compared to someone like me that has a single W2 job & a mortgage.

Yet, you do raise a good point, a building for a landlord is akin to a server for an IT company - both are tax write-offs. The world is full of nuance though.. I really appreciate the dialog.