Need advise on whether availing CCA is preferred over paying tax

[NewCanadian]

For my rental properties, I am looking for advice whether it is desirable to avail CCA now and defer recapture tax later to when I sell the property or do I pay the tax now on net profit.
Please advise pros and cons

[nelsona]

Since this is a cross-border forum, I'm going to have to assume that you are either someone living Canada with US property, or someone living in US with Cdn property. Otherwise the advice below does not necessarily apply to you, and I would suggest looking elsewhere.

There may be times when it is inadvisable to claim CCA (for example if you intend to change the use of your property in the future), but from a pure cross-border taxation point of view, if when filing your net rental income in Canada and it exceeds the US net rental income on that property, it would make sense to take the CCA that reduces your CDn rental income to the same income (or below) as calculated in US.

Remember, that you MUST depreciate in US, and recapture that depreciation when you sell (even if you forgot to claim the depreciation). So not taking CCA would see you pay more Cdn tax than necessary year after year, and then have less Cdn tax to use when you sell, when your US tax bill includes recapture.