(a) Certified coal mine safety equipment—(1) In general—(i) The term certified coal mine safety equipment means property which:

(a) Is electric face equipment (within the meaning of section 305 of the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969) required in order to meet the requirements of section 305(a)(2) of such Act,

(b) The Secretary of the Interior or the Director of the Bureau of Mines certifies is permissible within the meaning of such section 305(a)(2), and

(c) Is placed in service (as defined in subparagraph (2)(i) of this paragraph) before January 1, 1975.

(ii) In addition, property placed in service in connection with any used electric face equipment which the Secretary of the Interior or the Director of the Bureau of Mines certifies makes such used electric face equipment permissible shall be treated as a separate item of certified coal mine safety equipment. See subparagraph (2)(ii) of this paragraph.

(2) Meaning of terms.

(i) For purposes of subparagraph (1)(i)(c) of this paragraph, the term placed in service shall have the meaning assigned to such term in paragraph (d) of §1.46-3.

(ii) For purposes of subparagraph (1)(ii) of this paragraph, the term property includes those costs of converting existing nonpermissible electric face equipment to a permissible condition which are chargeable to capital account under the principles of §1.1016-2. Property is considered to be placed in service in connection with used electric face equipment (which was not permissible) if its use causes such electric face equipment to be certified as permissible.

(b) Adjusted basis—(1) In general. The basis upon which the deduction with respect to amortization allowed by section 187 is to be computed with respect to any item of certified coal mine safety equipment shall be the adjusted basis provided in section 1011 for the purpose of determining gain on the sale or other disposition of such property (see part II (section 1011 and following) subchapter O, chapter 1 of the Code) computed as of the first day of the amortization period. For an example showing the determination of the adjusted basis referred to in the preceding sentence in the case where the amortization period begins with the taxable year succeeding the taxable year in which the property is placed in service see Example 3 in paragraph (d) of §1.187-1.

(2) Capital additions. The adjusted basis of any certified coal mine safety equipment, with respect to which an election is made under section 187(b), shall not be increased, for purposes of section 187, for amounts chargeable to the capital account for additions or improvements after the amortization period has begun. However, nothing contained in this section or §1.187-1 shall be deemed to disallow a deduction for depreciation for such capital additions. Thus, for example, if a taxpayer places a piece of certified coal mine safety equipment in service in 1971 and in 1972 makes improvements to it the expenditures for which are chargeable to the capital account, such improvements shall not increase the adjusted basis of the equipment for purposes of computing the amortization deduction allowed by section 187(a). However, the depreciation deduction provided by section 167 shall be allowed with respect to such improvements in accordance with the principles of section 167.

[T.D. 7137, 36 FR 14734, Aug. 11, 1971; 36 FR 19251, Oct. 1, 1971]