IRS Form 4562
Form 4562 is where depreciation, §179 expensing, and amortization are reported. The 2025 instructions describe each part and the July 2025 law changes, including 100 percent bonus depreciation for qualified property acquired after January 19, 2025. Educational information, not tax advice.
Educational information, not tax advice.
Updated 2026-10-14
Key takeaways
- Part I is the §179 election; Part II is the special depreciation allowance; Part III is MACRS; Part IV is the summary; Part V is listed property; Part VI is amortization.
- Bonus is figured after §179 and before regular MACRS.
- A separate Form 4562 is generally required for each business or activity.
- The 2025 instructions describe 100% bonus for property acquired after January 19, 2025 and the 40%/60% election.
- Look-back studies are usually implemented on Form 3115, then reflected on later Forms 4562.
Form 4562, Depreciation and Amortization (Including Information on Listed Property), is filed to claim depreciation for property placed in service during the year, the §179 deduction, depreciation on listed property, and amortization. The 2025 instructions describe Part I (§179 election), Part II (special depreciation allowance and other depreciation), Part III (MACRS, including GDS and ADS classes), Part IV (summary), Part V (listed property), and Part VI (amortization).
After a cost segregation study of property placed in service during the year, the components appear in their classes. Section 179, if elected, is reported in Part I. Bonus depreciation on remaining qualified property is reported in Part II (line 14 for qualified property). The remaining basis is depreciated under MACRS in Part III. That order — §179, then special allowance, then regular MACRS — is the computational sequence the instructions describe.
Part III asks for classification, month and year placed in service, depreciable basis, recovery period, convention, and method. Half-year, mid-quarter, and mid-month are the conventions listed. Buildings use mid-month. Personal property generally uses half-year unless the mid-quarter test is met. Getting the convention wrong changes every later year’s table amount.
A separate Form 4562 is generally required for each business or activity. Listed property has its own part because of the business-use tests. Property used 50 percent or less for business is not bonus-eligible and is outside §179.
This page is educational information, not tax advice. Completing Form 4562 is the taxpayer’s or the CPA’s responsibility. CostSeg SI does not prepare the form, and Super Intelligence is not claimed as an operational return-preparation agent.
2025 instruction changes
The 2025 instructions’ What’s New list includes the §179 dollar limits, the phase-down of the special depreciation allowance for certain qualified property acquired before January 20, 2025, the special allowance for certain qualified property acquired after January 19, 2025, the special allowance for qualified production property, and the removal of solar or wind energy property from 5-year property for construction beginning after December 31, 2024.
Part II line 14 splits qualified property by those acquisition-date groups and includes separate headings for qualified production property, how to elect and designate it, excepted property, and recapture of the QPP allowance. QPP is an election under §168(n). The form instructions do not decide that a reader’s factory qualifies.
As of October 16, 2026, the bonus rate for qualified property acquired after January 19, 2025 is 100 percent under Public Law 119-21 and Notice 2026-11. Property acquired earlier follows the phase-down. The instructions and the notice should be read together.
Look-back studies
For property placed in service in earlier years, a study is usually implemented through Form 3115, and the §481(a) adjustment is reported as the instructions for that form direct. Ongoing depreciation is then reported on Form 4562 in later years, using the new classes.
Do not put a multi-year catch-up on Form 4562 as if the components were first placed in service in the study year. That would misstate both the placed-in-service date and the bonus rate.
Current-year property that has never appeared on a return is different. Those classes go on the first Form 4562. That is classification, not a method change.
Conventions and classes on the form
Column (e) of Part III is the convention. The instructions describe half-year, mid-quarter, and mid-month. Section 168(d) is the statute. A cost segregation study of a building placed in service late in the year can push personal-property basis into the last quarter and trigger mid-quarter for the year’s personal property.
Residential rental property and certain other real property appear in Section C of Part III. Personal-property classes appear in Section B. Mixing a 39-year building into a 5-year line, or the reverse, is a classification error the form will not catch by itself.
ADS classes have their own lines. Property required to use ADS is not bonus-eligible. An electing real property trade or business should expect its real property and QIP to appear in ADS, not GDS with bonus.
Recordkeeping
The instructions remind filers to keep records that support basis, placed-in-service dates, business use, and the elections claimed. A study report is part of that file when it supports the classes on the form. It is not a substitute for invoices and closing statements.
Listed-property questions in Part V require business-use percentages. Those percentages affect both the deduction and bonus eligibility.
If state depreciation differs from federal — California, for example, does not conform to §168(k) — the federal Form 4562 still reports the federal figures. State adjustments are made on the state form, such as FTB 3885. See the federal-versus-state page.
Sources
- 1
- 2IRS Publication 946 — How To Depreciate Property (2025)(opens in a new tab)
Appendix B reproduces the Rev. Proc. 87-56 class lives.