When is investment considered to be "at-risk?

How do we know if our land is considered an investment for tax purposes?

• We bought land this year and are using it for the hay. We built a barn on it and don't know which Depreciation Method to use. If we call it property used for an investment then we are told to use the Alternate Method but since it's a barn I thought we should use the 150% declining balance method. So to answer this question I first need to know if the land should be considered an investment or not. If not, what would it be considered? We plan to build our home on the land in probably 10 years.

• Answer:

  You depreciate the cost of the barn on a 39 year schedule using the straight-line method. This is standard for all real estate held for commercial purposes.