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We are an independent, advertising-supported comparison service. Our goal is to help you make smarter financial decisions by providing you with interactive tools and financial calculators, publishing original and objective content, by enabling you to conduct research and compare information for free - so that you can make financial decisions with confidence.
Bankrate has partnerships with issuers including, but not limited to, American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Citi and Discover.
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The offers that appear on this site are from companies that compensate us. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site, including, for example, the order in which they may appear within the listing categories. But this compensation does not influence the information we publish, or the reviews that you see on this site. We do not include the universe of companies or financial offers that may be available to you.
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Dear Tax Talk,
I have two questions about rental expenses. If I do repairs or maintenance work on my rental property that I own, can I write this off as an expense? If I purchase lawn equipment to maintain rental property that I own, can I write this off? — Scott
Dear Scott,
While being a do-it-yourselfer will save you money, it won’t get you an added tax deduction for your time and effort when it comes to rental expenses. Of course, if you know how to do your own handy work, you’re probably better off saving the costs of a craftsman rather than increasing your deductions. For example, if a craftsman costs you $100, you’ll only save a fraction of that in income taxes, depending on your tax bracket. If you paid yourself the $100, then you would have income equal to that amount. Your result would be $100 of income and $100 of deduction, which nets to zero tax effect. That is why you can’t write off your time as a rental expense.
If the primary purpose of the lawn equipment is to care for the rental property lawn, then you could write off the cost of the equipment through depreciation. If you use the equipment to care for your own lawn as well, then you should make an allocation of the cost to the rental property and part to nondeductible personal expense.
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