Fee Options
Early cost segregation practitioners charged enormous prices; $20K to 50K per report. It still provided a good return. They were essentially attempting to convert a flat fee service into a contingency fee service. The IRS does NOT like cost segregation performed on a contingency basis because of the tendency to encourage the analyst to over-state the depreciation.
O’Connor has been a leader in providing reasonably priced cost segregation reports nationally. Back in the early 2000s we were charging fees of $5K when competitors were charging (and getting) fees of $20 to 50K. Our initial problem was our price was so low, that it did not seem credible to a national accounting firm offering the service at 10 times the fee. How could someone offer such a lower fee?
O’Connor has developed a fee schedule that is transparent and provides two primary scopes of work regarding the site inspection:
- includes a site visit by an appraiser or other cost segregation expert, and
- no site visit.
In cases where the client elects to omit the site visit, we ask for information such as a photos or video of the property, information on large improvements and details related to the type of building. The combination of video and direct communication with a person with good knowledge of the property allows us to identify most of the short-life property.
The trade-off is that without a site-visit, we may miss a bit of the short-life property, perhaps 5 to 10%. There are well over 100 items that are considered short-life property. The benefit of a site visit is we are more likely to identify all short life items.
Using video and interviews in lieu of a site visit is a reasonable compromise. You get the vast majority of the benefit for a much lower fee. In addition, our due diligence ensures the result is reasonable and does not grossly overstate the depreciation.
Bonus Depreciation / Cost Segregation Fee Options
Commercial/Multifamily | Rental Houses | |
Includes On-Site Inspection | Starting at $5,000 (1) | Starting at $1,500 (2) |
No On-Site Inspection | Starting at $2,500 + (3) | Starting at $500+ (4) |
- Cost segregation reports including a site inspection typically start at $5,000. Complex properties are more expensive and there can be discounts for a group of properties.
- Typically $1,500 for a single property if a site inspection is included; discounts available for groups.
- Most commercial properties can be reasonably done for a fee of $2,500 if no inspection is required. It may not be appropriate for complex properties and discounts are available for groups.
- Discounts for more than 5 at one time.
The IRS wants three items from a cost segregation report:
- credible report
- credible result, and
- documentation of the results.
All 3 issues are addressed without a site visit but with information from the owner and a variety of other sources.
Don’t delay; check the cost segregation analysis to the right. If the results are promising, request a free preliminary analysis which will generally provide a result within 10% of the actual results.
We take all the risk out of the process. We are excellent at estimating the probable amount of short-life property in a building.
Our Guarantees:
- If there are any questions from the IRS, we will handle it for you, working with your tax preparer.
- If you do not reduce your income tax as a result of our cost segregation study we will reduce your fee.