Certain property cannot be depreciated. This includes land and certain excepted property. Per IRS Publication 946 How To Depreciate Property, on page 6:

Excepted Property

Even if the requirements explained in the preceding discussions are met, you cannot depreciate the following property.

• Property placed in service and disposed of in the same year. Determining when property is placed in service is explained later.
• Equipment used to build capital improvements. You must add otherwise allowable depreciation on the equipment during the period of construction to the basis of your improvements. See Uniform Capitalization Rules in Pub. 551.
• Section 197 intangibles. You must amortize these costs. Section 197 intangibles are discussed in detail in chapter 8 of Pub. 535. Intangible property, such as certain computer software, that is not section 197 intangible property, can be depreciated if it meets certain requirements. See Intangible Property, later.
• Certain term interests.

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