Medical & dental offices
Your buildout cost more than the walls. Depreciate it that way.
A medical or dental space is dense with equipment, and with the plumbing and wiring that exists only to serve it. The IRS default puts everything on a 39-year schedule. A study finds what should not be there.
The hookups rule
If it exists to serve a machine, it can move to a short life.
This rule comes straight from the case law. In Duaine v. Commissioner, the plumbing, gas lines, and electrical conduits that served specific kitchen equipment qualified as personal property, while the slab, the wall and floor tiles, and the ornamental lighting stayed with the building. The IRS's own audit guide cites the case for this functional approach.
Medical and dental spaces are full of exactly this kind of asset. The utility run that serves a specific machine can move to a short life even when the surfaces around it stay at 39 years:
Dental operatories
The water, air, vacuum, and electrical runs that serve each chair exist for the equipment, not for the building.
Exam and imaging rooms
Dedicated electrical for imaging equipment and special connections for exam fixtures get analyzed as equipment-serving runs.
Sterilization and lab areas
Plumbing and power that serve sterilizers, lab sinks tied to specific equipment, and dedicated circuits follow the same rule.
The honest part
Cabinetry and millwork: not an automatic win.
Medical offices are heavy on casework, and some studies treat all of it as short-life property. The courts are more careful. In Metro National v. Commissioner, removable cabinets and hardware qualified as personal property when the buildout was analyzed part by part. But Mallinckrodt v. Commissioner shows the other side: parts built in place generally stay with the building, and being non-structural is not enough by itself.
So we do not promise your cabinets a 5-year life from a phone call. We classify each piece to the evidence: how it is built, how it is attached, and what it serves. The wins that survive an exam are the ones with proof behind them. See what makes a study audit-defensible.
The QIP angle
Improving a leased or owned interior? QIP can cut 39 years to 15.
If you build out the interior of a nonresidential building after the building itself was first placed in service, that work can be qualified improvement property. QIP carries a 15-year life instead of 39, and it can qualify for 100% bonus depreciation. For a dental or medical buildout in a leased suite, QIP is often the single biggest acceleration bucket.
Three things never count as QIP: enlarging the building, elevators and escalators, and the internal structural framework. And QIP does not apply to residential rental buildings. A study sorts your buildout between QIP, shorter-life equipment assets, and the parts that stay with the building.
- What a medical-office study sorts out:
- Equipment-serving plumbing and electrical runs
- Cabinetry classified by how it is built and attached
- Interior buildout tested against the QIP definition
- Site improvements like paving and lighting at 15 years
Your buildout already paid for these deductions.
Enter your property and see your savings range in seconds. The estimate is free and no call is required.