You're right: with all of that, you're just shifting things around in time, and it resolves when you sell the asset or toss it. This can still have real effects

You're right: with all of that, you're just shifting things around in time, and it resolves when you sell the asset or toss it. This can still have real effects in times of high interest rates, or due to the fact that a loss might give you less of a tax credit, depending on jurisdiction, than a profit generates in tax obligations. Not sure how relevant it is to the issue described in the article: depreciations that are too small, thus front loading profits - but it might be that the tax code prohibits larger depreciations.