What CRE owners should review now: 100% bonus depreciation is back for qualified assets, and energy incentives need documented cutoff dates.
The planning window changed again
The One Big Beautiful Bill, signed July 4, 2025 as Public Law 119-21, changed several real-estate tax planning conversations. For commercial real estate owners, the practical message is simple: depreciation planning may be more powerful again, while certain energy incentive windows are now tighter.
Bonus depreciation is back at 100%
IRS guidance reviewed July 3, 2026 says current law generally provides a permanent 100% additional first-year depreciation deduction for qualified property acquired after Jan. 19, 2025.
That does not mean every property or every owner should automatically move forward. Cost segregation still needs to answer the taxpayer-specific question:
- Which components are supportable as shorter-life property?
- Was the property acquired and placed in service inside the right timing window?
- Can the owner actually use the deduction?
- Do passive-activity limits, bracket exposure, state treatment, elections, or disposition plans change the answer?
- What does the CPA need in the workpaper package?
179D and 45L now require sharper timing review
IRS guidance reviewed July 3, 2026 confirms two important energy-incentive deadlines:
- 179D is not available for property whose construction begins after June 30, 2026.
- 45L is not available for qualified new energy-efficient homes acquired after June 30, 2026.
For owners, developers, designers, and CPAs, that means the review should happen before project files scatter and before certification support becomes harder to reconstruct.
What owners should do now
Start with the property file. Pull the acquisition documents, placed-in-service facts, construction timeline, invoices, energy design records, certification status, and depreciation schedule. Then review the project with the CPA and any needed engineering or certification support.
The right answer is not just "claim the biggest deduction." The right answer is whether the current law, property facts, taxpayer profile, and documentation path line up cleanly enough to create usable, defensible tax value.